Overview:

We’ve been following Square since it launched in 2009, back when the idea of a swipe-based smartphone processing system with no monthly fee and no equipment cost sounded more or less like a fairy tale: too good to be true. Fast forward to 2016, and look around. There are many mobile payment solutions that claim to deliver on that promise. In fact, merchants have come to expect nothing less than mobile, pay-as-you-go solutions available to everyone. Even the smallest businesses, which might have never processed a dollar before, want the lowest rates possible, with no monthly fees. Square — and a host of others — have obliged. However, these contenders just can’t compete with the small business hub that Square has become.

Square is, without a doubt, the most feature-rich and advanced mobile processing (mPOS) solution you can find without a monthly fee. To get anywhere near this kind of functionality, you would normally have to go with an advanced iPad POS and pay (at the very least) $60 per month, plus processing rates that would not necessarily be lower than Square’s. Even PayPal Here (and by extension, PayPal itself) cannot rival the sheer number of features available. Instead, PayPal seems to prefer integrations and partnerships with third-party services that can get you what you need.

The cost is easily one of Square’s biggest draws. A flat rate of 2.75% for all swipedtransactions, 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed transactions, and 2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions. No monthly fee. No statement fees. No monthly minimum. Even without the Square Register POS, this is an extraordinary deal for many merchants, especially new ones without an established processing history. (For comparison, PayPal charges 2.7% per swipe with the PayPal Here app, 2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions, and 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed transactions).

So when you toss in a highly capable iPad POS (and smartphone-friendly mobile app) for free, the draw is almost irresistible.

And there’s more! If you want a seamless transition between online and in-person (or in-store), Square also provides you with a sleek online store that syncs with your in-app inventory, including inventory counts. There’s an e-invoicing solution, online ordering option, basic customer management, advanced analytics, tons of app integrations, PLUS an API for custom solutions. You get all of this for no monthly fee and low rates, especially if you have a low volume and/or low average tickets.

So at this point, you must be wondering, if we like Square so much, why no five-star rating? It really boils down to two related and significant Achilles’ heels. One: Account instability/funding holds. Two: Inconsistent customer support. If you’ve even glanced at our comments section, you know exactly what I mean. A major contributing factor to Square’s issues is the fact that it aggregates payments and accepts almost everyone who applies, which exposes the company to inherently greater risk. That in turn has lead to a very active risk mitigation department, which makes the final call about which accounts are terminated.

I’m not ready to wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend Square to all business owners. There are some companies, and types of businesses, that are better off with a traditional merchant account. Check out our article, Is Square Right For Your Business?, before reading our Square review.

If you fall into this category, or just can’t risk having your funds withheld, then go with a more reliable solution — namely, a merchant account from one of our top-rated processors. But if you need only sporadic service, you have low ticket values or generally low volume, Square may just be your best bet.

One downside with Square is that even if you love the Square Register POS, you can’t use it without Square’s credit card processing. So if you are wary of processing with Square, check out ShopKeep POS. It’s a great, high-powered alternative that works with many different payment processors.

If you want pay-as-you go mobile card processing and a free app, I recommend you check out our Square vs. PayPal Here article and decide for yourself which of our two favorite mobile payments services is right for you.

Square earns a 4-star rating for its ease of use, its astounding feature set, transparent pricing, and its overall status as a powerhouse ecosystem for merchants. If it can work out its issues with account holds or terminations, we’ll gladly raise that score, but not until then.

Read on for a full breakdown of Square’s services, its advantages, and disadvantages. If you’ve worked with Square, for better or worse, please comment with your thoughts!

Features:

Square’s POS and back-office features are unmatched by any other free mobile processing system. It’s not quite up to snuff when compared to more advanced (and expensive) systems, but with no monthly fee it’s really tough to beat. Here are the major features worth noting.

Payment Processing: This is the core of what Square does. Since you can’t get any of Square’s other features without also agreeing to process credit card transactions through them, it’s not right to just gloss over it. Square has, since its inception, grown from just a mobile POS to a payments system that also supports invoicing and e-commerce (a feature it is now improving on steadily).

POS App: We’ve said that the Square Register POS app is just about the most powerful app you can get for free, and it rivals many paid options, too. While the app is remarkably easy to use, it is incredibly feature rich and lets you, the merchant, decide how to run things. You can set tips and discounts, record cash and check transactions, handle split tenders, and much, much more. App features include:

Receipt printing (iPad only)

Kitchen ticket printing (iPad only)

Kitchen display compatibility (iPad only)

Signature and tip on paper receipt (iPad only)

Split tender

Show change for cash

Cash/check reporting

Custom transaction amounts

Tips by %

Tips by $

Discounts by %

Discounts by $

Full and partial refunds

Signature off option on small tickets (under $25)

Emailed receipts

SMS receipts

Customizable receipts

Inventory management: Square’s new inventory management system is the most advanced I’ve seen from any mobile processor with no monthly fee (if you need a more complete system, check out our inventory management reviews). Note that many inventory features can only be accessed in the iPad app or online, not in the basic smartphone app. Features include:

Import inventory via CSV file

Inventory count

Barcode scanning

Multiple tax rates

Item categories/varieties

Item add-ons/modifications

Online and in-store inventory sync

Item pictures/descriptions

e-Commerce/Online ordering:

Webstore hosting: Square will host your online store if you don’t want to bother with buying a domain, finding hosting, choosing a shopping cart software and building the site yourself (put like that, why would you want to!?). Your URL semi-customizable (www.mkt.com/yourstorename), but layout — while attractive — is dictated by Square’s template. One really nice thing here is that, unlike more simplistic solutions, Square lets customers select a shipping option if you have multiple options (such as first-class vs priority). That said, having your own domain and website is a powerful business asset that makes you appear more reputable to many consumers. So be sure to weigh the advantages of each setup.

Payment Gateway for e-commerce sites: If you have a website built already, and it’s powered by BigCommerce, Weebly, or Ecwid, you can integrate Square directly to process payments. I’d like to see more names on this list, but with the API (see the next point), it’s less of a concern.

Developer APIs: Have your own site with a different shopping cart software? Your own mobile POS app? Take advantage of Square’s Developer APIs to implement your own custom solution (at no additional charge). You can also get APIs to link your inventory, employee management, and sales analytics services with Square.

Online menu ordering: This operates just like the webstore, and allows customers to place and pay for an order for pickup. (You can also add Square’s Caviar service to implement a delivery option.)

e-Invoicing: Manage invoices in-app or online. Invoices can be saved or sent immediately. It’s a basic system, but wholly functional and should cover most of your needs. It does not integrate with your Square inventory, however.

Virtual terminal: Use this browser-based tool to enter in credit card payments from any internet-connected device with a web browser. No cell phone or tablet required.

Other Square Features:

Customer feedback management: Here’s a cool feature. It’s called Square Feedback, this system prompts customers to leave feedback about their experience not on social media, but directly to you. This allows you to manage your reputation, quickly identify problems, and prevent public complaints from surfacing on the web. You also get access to details like purchase history, previous feedback, and average spending…all at no extra charge (formerly $10/month for advanced customer insights). You can also issue refunds or coupons from Square Feedback. However, please note that this feature is limited to debit/credit transactions only (no cash transaction) and is really best used when you also start taking advantage of Square’s customer database feature.

Advanced reporting: Square offers some of the best online reporting you’ll see in a pay-as-you-go provider (and even many monthly fee-based providers). You can generate real-time reports by the hour, day, week, month, or year from your online Square Dashboard, with many reports available in the iPad app. Reports can focus on specific item categories, mobile staff sales, sales by item, sales by payment method and more. Check out this page for a more complete list of reports offered. Many of the reports are exportable by CSV. Speaking of reports and data, though, Square also offers this gem:

Customer database: I consider this Square feature a light version of what Swipely is doing. Its customer overview is no where near as in-depth, but has some cool features regardless. This page displays various customer behaviors, including sales and visits by new versus returning customers and customer visit frequency. These charts display activity over the time period indicated. You can segment guests based on frequency of visits, and then use those segmented groups in your email marketing. The customer database also integrates with Square’s invoices and appointments. It is really an amazing feature given the the price point (free).

Email marketing: I’ve said this before….Square really is an entire ecosystem for businesses. Send newsletters and special offers to your email subscriber using Square’s service, and take advantage of the data from your customer database to do so.

Appointments: Operate a salon or an office? Integrate Square’s appointment-setting software for a low monthly cost. As we’ve said, this integrates with Square’s customer database so you can make notes and make the most of the experience for your customers.

Loyalty/rewards program: Square allows you to give your customers digital punch cards. You set how much must be spent in order to earn a punch, and how many punches to earn a reward. You set the reward in the form of either a dollars off coupon or a percentage off coupon. A nice thing about this is that it allows both cash and card transactions to count toward rewards, as long as customers use the same email or phone number for each transaction.

Employee management and payroll: I did say Square is becoming an entire ecosystem for merchants, and that extends into more backend features. The company offers both employee management (setting roles/permissions for access to features/data, time-keeping, analytics, and more) as well as payroll (available in 8 states at the time of writing).

Offline Mode card processing: Sometimes, you just can’t survive if the Internet goes out at your place of business. Sometimes you can’t get cellular signal on your smartphone and there isn’t even the tiniest bit of Wi-Fi to be had. That’s where Square’s Offline Mode comes in handy. No Internet? No problem. Square will let you continue to process credit cards when there is no Internet (Wi-Fi or cellular) available. The first caveat is that you are responsible for any transactions that would have been declined normally. The second is that you need to connect your smartphone or tablet to the Internet within 3 days for any of the transactions to go through. If you don’t need this feature or think the risk of processing a card that should have been declined is too high, don’t use it. If you do need it, well…there aren’t many other options out there that even allow offline processing.

Chargeback protection: Square offers sellers up to $250 in chargeback protection per month. You upload your documentation for the dispute and Square handles the rest — and if the sale in question is eligible for protection, you don’t have to pay for anything even if the dispute isn’t decided in your favor. The question, of course, is how many transactions are actually eligible for this rather awesome feature.

Gift cards: Square has rolled out gift cards for merchants. You can choose from a pre-designed card (sold in packs of 20 with next-day shipping), a template (minimum order of 125 cards and 3-day production times) or upload a completely custom design (500-card minimum and 15-day production time). There’s no redemption fee and the cards are even reloadable. Analytics let you track how much of the gift cards’ balances is still unspent and more.

Payroll: Payroll started as a single-state experiment, but Square has expanded to 8 states since it’s launch and I don’t see why it wouldn’t continue to do so. Just expect it to take some time before it reaches every state. Square also offers employee management (including timekeeping), so you really can centralize your business management.

Instant deposits: One of the greatest advantages to using PayPal is that your funds have been available almost instantly in the majority of cases. Now, Square offers the ability to initiate instant deposits. Most transactions appear in your bank account within 48 hours, but if you log into Square an initiate an instant deposit, the funds should appear in your bank account within a minute. Square charges you 1% of the deposit amount for this feature (and remember, you’re still paying processing fees on top of that).

I am looking forward to seeing what else Square can provide for merchants. The company has already grown so much, but there’s still so many more directions it could go.

What’s Missing

Square has so much that it’s hard to imagine this app missing anything at all. And really, you’re right. I think PayPal Here is missing more than Square is these days, but that doesn’t mean Square is perfect.

First and foremost: I think it would be great to see Square open up the option for merchants to use its POS with other payment processors.

I’d also love to see a GPS feature that can auto-detect tax rate. As it is, Square’s tax feature is quite robust. You can choose whether to charge tax for particular items and even set different rates. You can also modify tax rates when you’re charging the purchase. All of these are good things.

Officially, Square doesn’t support recurring billing. You can technically do it using Square’s customer management feature, but the company recommends that you get a signed, written agreement specifying the terms (value of each transaction, frequency, etc.) If you need this feature, you may want to look elsewhere.

Pricing/Fees and Rates:

Square’s pricing is simple. While you can’t get interchange-plus pricing and volume discounts are only available for very large companies, you also won’t have to deal with pricing tiers. Nor will you have to navigate hidden fees. In fact, you won’t have to navigate anything beyond Square’s basic processing fees whatsoever, unless you opt for add-on services.

Basic Rates and Fees:

Monthly fee: $0

Headphone jack reader:$0(Note that you are liable for the costs of any fraud brought on by processing an EMV chip card using the magstripe reader.)

These are not bad costs. In fact, I think they’re pretty amazing and a huge mark in Square’s favor. Here’s why:

Square’s EMV readers are cheaper than any terminal and just about any other EMV reader on the market (especially EMV/NFC capable readers). The POS is free. The processing rates are exactly on par with the majority of pay-as-you-go mobile processors. The costs for the add-on services are absolutely competitive.

The only way you’re going to get lower processing rates and get a comparable suite of features is to open a merchant account. There are a few mobile processors that offer lower rates, but their apps aren’t even close to being as robust as Square’s and you don’t get any of the extra features. Even if you do get a merchant account, you’re going to have to begin a search for a POS that gives you all the features you need.

As you start processing higher volumes or larger transactions, a merchant account is certainly the most stable option. But for a new merchant or a low-volume business, it is hard to argue with the sheer value that Square presents.

Processing Limits:

According to the Square site, merchants start off with a per transaction limit of $50,000. While that’s the stated limit, the reality is that many merchants encounter trouble at a much lower threshold. In some of the BBB complaints we’ve read, Square has recommended keeping transactions below $3,000, although we have read of transactions in the hundreds-of-dollars range that have triggered suspensions or terminations.

This is one of the challenges of using Square. Most merchants have no idea when they will cross the invisible line and trigger an account suspension or investigation by Square. A busier-than-average month or a significantly larger-than-average ticket are good ways to attract unwanted attention from Square’s risk department, which might request additional information from you to verify.

Contract Length and Early Termination Fee:

There is no early termination fee or locked-in contracts with Square, which is true of almost all mobile-based processors. Every add-on service is month-to-month and there’s a 30-day free trial for each, which means there is essentially no risk. Be warned that you must wait the full 30 days in your trial period before cancelling or renewing your subscription.

This is really what we like to see at Merchant Maverick. We just wish more companies in the payment industry would follow suit.

Sales and Advertising Transparency:

For me, Square does very, very well with transparency. Everything the company says in its advertising and marketing checks out, and there’s no wacky sales gimmicks or promises of unbeatable rates, free rate reviews, etc. The “free” basic magstripe reader is actually free and you can easily find the price for every aspect of Square’s service on a corresponding web page.

The company could definitely provide more information about account holds, why they happen and how to avoid them. This is the biggest complaint from merchants using Square, and surely the company is aware of this. There really isn’t anything about transaction limits or the ideal ticket size at all on the site.

Aside from that issues, however, I couldn’t ask for more from Square. All fees, rates, and important information appears in their sales copy, and just about everything else you could ever want to know about processing with Square appears in detail within their extensive Help Center.

I generally find that merchant account providers struggle with marketing in the 21st century. Many of them operate like it’s still 1995. Some are marginally better — they work like it’s 2006 . But that’s still a full decade behind the times. I fully expect companies that serve small businesses to know how to market to small businesses. And that means putting information online, providing helpful content, and knowing how to use social media.

Square has a really solid handle on all of these issues. It’s knowledge base is incredible, and you don’t even need an account to look through it. That’s great if you want to compare how specific features work before you open an account. The blog (called Townsquare) is full of content targeting merchants and businesses of all types, reflecting Square’s diverse customer base. And in terms of social media, you’ll find an active Facebook page, an even more active Twitter feed (@Square), a dedicated Twitter support feed (@SqSupport), and a LinkedIn page.

The company at least seems to be addressing complaints about customer service on its social media channels, and not just the @SqSupport Twitter channel. You can message the Facebook page directly if you need help. All of its social media channels are active, with a good mix of important news, helpful blog posts, and funny content. This is absolutely essential, and I like that Square is addressing a really broad range of merchants, reflecting the diverse nature of businesses. I personally know lots of artists who rely on the service, and quite a few local restaurants. But there are many, many others who do, and all of them have unique needs and preferences.

It might sound like I’m nitpicking, but a company that doesn’t know how to reach small businesses to market its services has no business providing its services to those small businesses. But I am thrilled about how open, transparent, and helpful Square is on the marketing side of things.

Ease of Use:

After creating a “demo” shop with a couple different categories and products, I tested how long it took me to get familiar with the Square interface. I had the whole thing down in under an hour and was impressed by its smooth, intuitive layout. There’s no doubt that Square is doing okay in the looks department.

One interesting thing about the interface is that you can manage the app in different ways. For my demo I downloaded the app onto my iPad and then added all of the categories and products by logging into my Square account on my laptop web browser. All of the inventory additions created on my laptop were quickly synced to the iPad. Square also allows you to add and manage inventory items directly on the iPad, which is not the case for a lot of other cloud POS software.

Just remember that many of the more advanced features are iPad-only, because they’re meant more for merchants who want a traditional register setup. iOS devices overall seem to function well with Square, but because the Android ecosystem is so diverse, you may have different experiences using the app. Square has a list of “devices with known issues” to inform you of potential compatibility difficulties with your device.

I’ve found Square very easy to use. Creating categories, products, discounts, product modifiers, and tax brackets is simple. I am also a fan of the “favorites” category that allows you to keep up to 125 popular products on a virtual “shelf” for quick checkout access.

A final note on ease of use is regarding Square’s recent update to the checkout process for businesses with the tip option enabled. In the past, after swiping their credit card, customers were prompted to a page with a virtual signature pad and the option to leave a tip. Square has divided this process into three parts: first the credit card is swiped, then the customer is directed to the page with the option for a tip, and finally they are asked to sign for their purchase. iTunes is full of frustrated merchants who say they feel the new approach is confusing and makes customers feel like they’re obligated to leave a tip.

Hardware and Software Requirements:

The Square Register app works on Apple devices running the latest version of iOS (iPhone 4s and above), including most iPads, as well as iPod Touches 5th generation or higher. Remember that some features, such as receipt printing, are iPad exclusives, and you can only run a full register setup from an iPad. Square states that its apps may work on some Android tablets but it does not officially support them or guarantee compatibility.

As far as Android support goes, things are a bit spotty. Amazon Kindle devices aren’t compatible at all. Any other Android devices need to be running Android 4.0 or higher, with GPS and Google Play enabled.

It’s also worth noting that there is a third-party bit of hardware that will work with Square on iOS devices. It’s called the Miura M010 reader, and unlike Square’s own EMV/NFC reader, it’s chip-and-pin, not just chip-and-signature. It looks, rather unsurprisingly, like PayPal’s EMV reader (which does work with Android devices). The M010 will cost you $129 through Square, with an optional $30 dock.

Also, Square cannot take payments on laptops or computers, although the backend dashboard area can be accessed from any computer with a web browser and Wi-Fi connection. If you absolutely need a virtual terminal, you should look at a merchant account, PayPal (it’ll cost you an extra $30/month), or Intuit QuickBooks Payments, which includes free use of the Intuit GoPayment mobile app (just pay your swipe fees).

Please note: You are not legally obligated to accept EMV in any way, shape, or form. But you are liable for any transactions processed using a fraudulent credit card, which could easily be more than the cost of one of Square’s EMV card readers. You’ll need a 3.5 mm headphone jack for the EMV-only or basic magstripe readers, or Bluetooth enabled for the EMV/NFC readers.

Integrations and Add-Ons:

Square has a long list of add-ons and integration compatibility. We’re breaking them down by type of service so you can find what you need more easily:

If you’re a programmer or you have one on staff, you can also take advantage of Square’s APIs to create custom solutions.

Customer Service and Technical Support:

You have a few ways to reach out to Square if you have a problem. You can message the Facebook page or tweet @SqSupport on social media, or send Square an email. But if you’re in a pinch and need an answer right away, you probably want phone support, which is available Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time. Those aren’t the best hours, but they should work for the majority of merchants. Square is quick to brag that most other departments keep in close contact with the support team, including the executives. There’s also a useful site, www.issquareup.com, which will tell you whether any of Square’s services are having technical issues.

To say customer support has been a problem at Square is an understatement. For a long time, Square didn’t offer phone support at all. Itsemail support was basically 100% cookie-cutter, and getting a personal, well-considered, account-specific reply was nearly impossible. In 2013, Square introduced a phone support system, which at first seemed difficult to use and was performing poorly. By late 2014, however, the phone support system seemed to have improved.

That’s not to say that Square’s system is perfect. The phone support system is still limited only to merchants who can obtain a customer code and then dial in. People whose accounts have been terminated cannot reach Square on the phone, and those who have their accounts put on hold also seem to have trouble reaching out.

With more than 2 million merchants as Square customers, support is incredibly difficult to execute in a cost-effective way. Add inthe relative lack of processing experience these merchants tend to have, along with a lack of proper explanation of the pitfalls of third-party processing, and it’s certainly a challenging situation. We also have to acknowledge that there are shady businesses that take advantage of Square’s “come as you are” approach, which ultimately hurts everyone else — consumers, other merchants, and of course Square itself. Other well-meaning businesses sign up without doing their research, not knowing that theirs is a high-risk industry (which Square names on its Prohibited Goods and Services list), and promptly find their accounts suspended or terminated.

Even larger processors with more resources have trouble executing customer support well. But we know it can done well. And, we have to give credit where credit is due: Square is actually putting in the effort. So I am hopeful that Square will continue to improve.

Square’s shortcomings in account-specific customer support are mitigated by its industry-leading (and I do mean it; I’m not just throwing that phrase around) knowledge base for self-service customer support. The vast majority of your problems with or questions regarding the Square system will be answered in this online user manual. It is truly extensive, and contains helpful screen captures and walk-through for every single feature offered. This is, in my opinion, the gold standard for merchant services support pages.

Negative Reviews and Complaints:

There’s no lack of complaints against Square across the web. Basically every consumer advocacy outlet and review site you can name has multiple complaints or scam warnings regarding Square and Square Register. A quick Google search will produce way more feedback on Square then you could ever hope to read.

With that said, Square has an A+ rating with the BBB (improved from a B+ in early 2014) despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews. You’ll also see the company has had 1334 complaints filed in the last 3 years (with 618 closed in the last 12 months). That’s actually up from 1150 complaints at our last check-in, and nearly half of them in the past year. That’s not what we like to see, but the complaint volume is still low when you consider that Square’s customer base is 2 million merchants.

It’s also worth noting that you’ll find just over 700 complaints on RipOff Report (703 at the time of writing). However, a good share of these will be duplicates of other comments on the web. Others won’t relate to Square at all — such as apartment complexes with “Square” in the name, or the third-party warranty company Squaretrade. And plenty others are from consumers complaining about merchants they believe have scammed them. So the number of complaints is heavily inflated on the site.

However, there is a common theme to all of the complaints, and they boil down to two closely related issues:

Poor customer support: This is the number one complaint lodged against Square. Some Square merchants even go so far as to suggest that Square is a scam because of their appalling track record of processing funds that have been placed on hold. Square support indicates that they will respond to email inquiries within 24 hours. The time frame is sometimes closer to 2-3 days according to a slew of frustrated merchant reports. We are also sad to see complaints about non-responsive support. Fortunately, the social media team seems to be on the ball when it comes to followups. We’ll also say that Square will work with merchants who file a complaint through the BBB, based on what we’ve seen on the BBB page.

Account stability issues/funding holds: Difficulty with inaccessible funds is a close second in the complaints department, and considering many of the support complaints are in reference to funding holds, this is probably the most important issue. Square’s aggressive fraud prevention tactics have put many small businesses in a position where they can’t access their income because their transactions have raised a general red flag for any number of reasons. Part of the problem here is that Square does not properly disclose/explain the risks involved in third-party processing. If your account is suspended, you may be able to get reinstated if you provide the necessary documentation. This doesn’t always happen, however. Quite a few merchants seem to encounter holds, then provide the information Square requests for verification purposes…only to receive a termination notice.

A third issue that has come up recently is Square’s EMV hardware. The EMV/magstripe reader appears to often arrive on merchants’ doorsteps completely non-functional, or they cease working after just a few weeks. Square appears to be very accommodating as far as replacements go, but that obviously doesn’t do anything to alleviate the liability issue until your new reader arrives. The Bluetooth reader appears to be more reliable, but it can have some issues pairing with your phone. I expect that this issue will be fixed soon, as soon as Square works out the bugs in its hardware.

There is also some good news. Based on BBB complaints, some merchants who submit their documentation are able to get their accounts reactivated, and others have been able to get a resolution to their problems by reaching out to the BBB as well. I’m not going to say Square is the most accommodating company as far as BBB complaints go, but there’s a definite improvement, and I have seen companies that are far more stubborn and much less apologetic.

You’re probably wondering at this point whether Square even deserves its 4-star rating. I encourage you to check out our article on negativity bias to understand our process and why we’ve rated Square as such.

Positive Reviews and Testimonials:

The negative chatter about Square is scary, but there is some good out there! Square has been a really good POS solution for some business owners. Here’s what happy merchants are saying:

Features/design: Square has, far and away, the most diverse and advanced feature set of any major mobile processing service without a monthly fee. This is why people choose Square, and it’s why it’s managed to eke out four stars despite a pretty formidable load of complaints. See the Features section above for a complete list of all the cool things you can do with Square. People especially love the inventory, reporting, and offline processing options.

Innovative: Square was really the first to make mobile processing accessible to everyone, and while the competition has gotten tough, Square hasn’t given up or rested on its laurels. The company is constantly rolling out new features that provide EVERYTHING a merchant could ever need.

Inexpensive: Since square does not charge a per-transaction fee on swiped transactions, low-ticket business stand to save a significant percentage. This is because a $0.10 transaction fee on a $5 ticket is actually 2% added on. When you look at it that way, the 2.75% flat rate starts to look really good. Also, many American Express transactions are actually processed below cost by Square, which might not be sustainable long-term but is great for businesses that process a lot of AmEx cards. The downside is that debit transactions cost way more with Square than they ought to. Even add-on services that cost a monthly fee are comparable to third-party options. Not only that, but Square’s EMV readers are the most inexpensive options available — $29 for an EMV-only reader, and $49 for an EMV/NFC-enabled device.

Easy to open accounts: The ease of obtaining an account is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it increases Square’s risk and requires a very proactive approach when it comes to fraud prevention. On the other, being able to open an account and process transactions within a few minutes is a huge draw for many businesses.

E-Commerce support: A free online store is a big draw for new merchants, especially those who aren’t sure the cost of building their own would be justified, or those who just don’t have the upfront capital to invest. While in the long-term you are better off building your own site, this is a great way for merchants to find their footing online. The best part is, now you can actually continue to process with Square when you move to your own website.

You’ll also find more positive reviews and testimonials on Square’s site. I like that there is a mix of short testimonials (with merchant and business names attached) as well as long-form press coverage.

Final Verdict:

Square is synonymous with mobile payments. It did what no one else had managed before — to make credit card payments accessible to everyone — and has incredible name recognition even with a mess of competitors. The company has experienced growing pains and gotten a bad reputation for holding merchant funds. But, in the middle of 2016, it’s clear that Square is improving and really carving out its niche in the merchant services industry.

That’s not to say there aren’t issues. Square struggles with account stability as a result of its aggregating, and its customer service is by no means perfect. Please remember that Square is not for everyone, despite the company accepting virtually anyone who applies for an account. There’s a long list of prohibited businesses, including “high-risk” products and services. If you fall into this category, you are better off with a merchant account.

Nevertheless, with features like inventory management, advanced reporting, offline processing, online sales and more — all executed very well — Square has more features than I’ve seen from any other no-monthly-fee provider. If you’re willing to pay a bit extra, there are even more great things in store for you. For instance, you’ll find a very reasonably priced gift card solution, a solid scheduling system, and an absolutely gorgeous iPad stand with a built-in card reader.

If you need a solid iPad POS solution but don’t want to gamble with your funds, there’s always ShopKeep, which is compatible with a variety of other processors. You can also check out our other mobile processors, but be aware that they simply don’t have the same sort of robust feature set that Square does, and they face the key issues — account holds and customer service.

As far as value goes, it is very hard to beat Square. Its pricing is absolutely competitive for a pay-as-you-go processor, and the fact that you get an incredibly robust POS and mobile app for free just seals the deal. Square’s additional services allow business to centralize many key functions with one service, with no commitment beyond an affordable monthly fee.

Square keeps its 4-star rating for these reasons. I hope to see account stability continue to improve this year, which could bump that rating up a bit. I am also excited to see where Square might go next.Check out our article, 6 Ways Square Needs to Change After Going Public, for some speculation on that topic.

Thanks for reading!

Have you opened an account with Square? Please leave us a comment with your experience! Good or bad, your feedback helps us immensely.

Melissa Johnson

Melissa Johnson is an independent writer and editor who loves e-commerce, digital marketing, technology, and social media. Once upon a time, she earned a journalism degree, but she went on to discover that she could work from home, researching, editing, and writing about the things she found most interesting. When she's not tied to her laptop, Melissa can usually be found in the kitchen, reading a book, or doing something of the nerdy persuasion.

439 Comments

Marcy J November 15, 2016 at 10:41 am

I am writing to advise people to beware of Square. A client of mine was hacked and thru them my Square account has been attacked via the Square invoice dispute process. I received notification of a 4-month old invoice being disputed and within an hour of receiving this notification I responded with documentation and emails from my client stating this was not disputed. Square did not bother opening my email or reviewing my response before initiating a withdrawal directly from my bank account to “hold” funds until the dispute was settled. That was Three weeks ago. We resolved the issue with the client last week, only to have my client’s hackers dispute the invoices again yesterday. And Square? They again attempted to withdraw funds from my account for a known fraudulent dispute. My Square account has been frozen for three weeks. My advice? There are other safer and more responsive service providers out there. Stay away from Square.

In common with many of the other comments, all was fine until a client asked to process a large payment (a month’s consulting) through a card. Without notice Square demanded all the information listed below and then deemed the account high risk and refused to release the funds for 90 days (minus their fee no doubt). No reason given and none to be supplied according to the letter. It does not look good to go back to the client and tell them that we could not process payments. So we are stuck with waiting past the year end for our payment. This checking should have been done up front and the decision made before any payments were processed.

I have been working with Square for 4 years, i have a salon as i read these reviews very confused i have never had a issue, always been able to get some one on the phone when call and i have grown every year! Love this company! I think they do a great job

4

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I pre ordered the chip reader that bluetooths to your devices. I go to use it for the first time after finally receiving it moths ago just to find out that it doesn’t connect to my phone. How can a bluetooth device that runs their register app not be compatible with their hardware? It is BLUETOOTH for God’s sake!! I call them up pissed of making me look like a fool to my client when it doesn’t work. Just for the new age hippy way of patronizing a person that has every right to be upset. It isn’t like I am throwing a tantrum because I didn’t get a gummy bear snack in my lunch box. This is a BUSINESS and loss of money we are talking about folks. Do not patronize me or others when you have a crappy business that causes us to lose money and clients.

The lady said sorry over and over and over…..number ONE mistake in my eyes!

She offered me a puny 100 dollars of free transactions for my trouble…..number TWO mistake.

She said she would see if their plug in device would be compatible with my phone……I gave her the make and model and sure enough was untested…….number THREE mistake

I told her that I would no longer do business through Square, because when a company pisses me off this bad and makes me lose business then they lose my business in return. She got me my info for the return of the product so I can get refunded the 49 dollars I spent….MINUS the shipping and hassles…….number FOUR mistake.

I also got an email about getting 100 dollars of free transactions or 180 days which ever comes first. As often as I need to use it I would end up getting nothing in return……number FIVE mistake.

I have been very insulted. They have tried to pull the fast corporate smooth over a pissed off customer by offering a very tiny offer like I am some child that is a sucker. This to me proves that corporations charge for the value they think they are, but downgrade the consumer with measly offers to say sorry for wasting the consumers valuable time, money, emotions, and well being.

YES Square I do not fall for that slide of hand trick. I cut ties and say good riddance to the corporation that swindles me out of my value! If I did it to wal-mart 25 years ago. I will do it to you. Never again will I do business with you or any subsidiary company you may own.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Same as below. You think you’re all set up, you start charging your clients and then BAM..All of a sudden Square is concerned about security. Not before they charge your clients. It’s after they have the money that they become concerned and feel a moral obligation to hold it and hold it and hold it…. Very interesting. So like everyone else 1) they have my money 2) I can’t get it 3) nobody cares. I didn’t think this could happen in the country.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

POS should stand for Piece of shit!! This company is nothing but a thieving scam, and fraud that needs to be put out of business. After doing business with them for more than 2 years with no issues whatsoever with my account, they accepted a credit card payment for my account at 11:00 A.M. and then at 4:00 P.M. on the same day determined my account to be “risky”, for no reason whatsoever and “deactivated” my account and said they were holding my $4,000.00 for 90 days before releasing it, again, for no reason whatsoever. Avoid these scam artists like the plague!!!! If you are a current customer, you better get out while you can. It’s just a matter of time until they screw you too. Don’t believe me, there are literally hundreds of complaints like mine on Rip Off, and other sites!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

First, my experience with Square has been great. Instant deposit is fantastic and functions exactly how they said it would; if the payment was more than $50, I can click “instant deposit” and it’s in my bank account immediately.

Secondly, allow me to address negative reviews since I’ve been processing credits card for many years. Square is “non-underwritten” when you first sign up. That means they allow you to process cards without any type of check. That works well for low volume and low sales-point items or services.

As soon as you start processing high volume or high ticket priced items (items/services that cost thousands for a single transaction) you now have to be underwritten. That means bank statements, business documentation, licenses, credit check, etc…

Fully underwritten is the system you’re going to need to process high volume with any credit card processor, so if you’re a high volume or high ticket sales business, you’re better off to get fully underwritten from the beginning – so prepare the last 3 months of bank statements from your business checking and prepare for a credit check.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Be careful with this company they will stop doing your deposits but they will tell you you can keep running credit card transactions through them they will demand a bunch of paperwork on your business and copies of the invoices once you give them all that they will tell you that it’s still going to take a couple days to investigate and make sure this is a legit company and make sure there was no fraud Act and when you try to call them it will tell you that you have a 15 to 20-minute wait then it will give you the option to push one for a call back and tell you that you will not lose your spot in line but trust me you will not receive a phone call back for 10 hours I was in bed last night at 10:30 at night when they called me back and I’m on Eastern Time and I left him a message at 12:20 which is Eastern Time and they weren’t open because they are 3 hours behind us this company will give you the biggest run around and biggest headache there is out there and I have been dealing with this now for 4 days and they still haven’t resolved my problem yet

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Square works just like a bandage. Its good for temporary events. It should not be considered a long term solutions for businesses. People can use it for yard sales and other fund raising events But if you are going to be in business everyday then get something permanent.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We’ve been using square as our payment processing system for 2 years. Theres a busy coffee shop down the street thats using it as well. To suggest its good for temporary events and yard sales shows that the reviewer doesn’t really know what he or she is talking about or just hasn’t used Square the way its intended to be used. The reporting is fantastic, the system is customizable, the fees are reasonable, we have had zero issues receiving funds and checking people out is fast and easy.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Ok Square should be avoided , this is what happened when we tried to join Square alongside our current payment provider Paypal :

1. No response to emails or phone calls.2. Their phone numbers are all bots who ask for code numbers which can’t be found3. They spam you with emails , we’ve received hundreds at a time.4. They deposit a few cents into your account and then say your account is “unverified”.5. Absolute Joke – Avoid Square , use Paypal.

AudioBuy LLC currently manage , own and operate the following websites :

AudioBuy LLC use Paypal to process all card payments , we are looking for a secondary method so we have TRIED to reach out to Square. Their admin console asks for bank account verification which we completed , they then proceed to deposit a small amount of money into our account – days later they then says verification failed and Square cannot be used. Everytime we email Square we receive no human response but about 15 automated responses every time.

Is this the norm with Square? With Paypal , you visit their site – create an account and can begin trading. The process with Square so far is concerning to say the least.

2

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We had been doing business with Squaretrade for about 3 years. Had no problems with themtaking pymts and no problems getting our funds deposited into our account.

They had been sending us emails telling us we may qualify for a loan up to a particular amountbased on our credit card monthly processing. We ignored the emails for 6 months or so and decidedto apply. I mean the payback is deducted from your credit card monthly processing and we thought would be a good way of getting some immediate cash.

Well they turned us down. About three days later we get an email from them telling us they haveterminated our account with them, and we can no longer process credit card payments immediately!

Luckily we had no outstanding business for them to hold, like I see from many other comments here, but it left us scrambling for a credit card processor. We processed any where from $ 5,000 a month to $ 28,000 a month.

They didn’t even give us a reason other than to refer to article # 6 in our agreement, which is so vague, we still don’t know or understand. Plus you can’t talk to anyone without emailing, then getting a code from them, which we also had issues with the codes to communicate.

Our last email from the basically said their decision was final.

Poor way to conduct business, at least give us a 30 day notice to give us time to get anotherprocessor in place. Made us look questionable to our customers when we had to hold credit card pymts, or ask for other forms of pymt they weren’t accustomed to.

Again, I’m glad we lost no money, or had funds held like others here. I continue to be puzzled bytheir decision because we never had ANY issues, until we responded to their loan application.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Caution AdvisedThis is a system that is totally useless,,,,for most businesses. I have been in business for 14+ years used Global Payments, Pivotal Payments before in past! (always some problem… they love to keep your money as long as possible) Only 1 Consumer review in 14 years and held up my money for couple days/week but got it returned!This sounded like better deal at first!!!! CAUTION! CAUTION!Small Business, heating and air conditioning over $100,000.00 + a year in VISA, MasterCard sales5 Days set up — that`s goodReasonable to purchase— That`s goodFirst couple weeks payments put in account —-that`s goodFriday of 2nd week message your account is on hold,,,, need to fill out information request ,1) government registration (again)2) Last months bank statement —Are you Kidding3) month before last month statement—Must be Joking4) 3 months ago bank statement– Really are they mental,,,, better review this company more,,,yikes they do this to everyone at sometime by sounds of it.5) call support,,,, not available ,,,, only at there time Monday to Friday 3 hours different time zone.6) At least they have a return funds button …. refund customers money wait 5 days for them to get back they say I hope that works. Call them tell them to watch statements for there refund to cards (did email them receipts that money had been returned) but takes days and seconds for them to remove it from cards… (funny how that works with all of them, quick to take slow to return)7) This system is used by a family member no problem yet for them but looking like last time they will use!8) requested my LinkedIn account was asked for also —– WHY ,,,,WHY i don`t even use that gossip channel ,,,,, because I work every day! (“George got new post, head pencil sharpener”)9) I am glad this happened this early on before I had used this non-service much!10) Caution Caution read reviews if it sounds to good to be true it probably is. I pretty sure I would be hearing lots of other services they offer after looking at bank statements!!! (Can we pay your bills so easy for us to do for you) Only charge 2.5 percent for them!!! (forgot they just added that service and payroll,,)11) Caution….First. Can`t believe all or at least your local bank wont have similar services available within a few months…. wait it out!!!12) E-Transfers a way better option,,, No fee yet, other than bank fees for business accounts13) I believe this company just waits to get you “over a barrel so to speak” to get your bank statements, invoices ect. I fully understand why BBB has been notified about them!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have used Square for five years. It is difficult for me to give an overall rating. I will give Square 5 stars for being a cookie-cutter start-up to a business that ships products and merchandise. 1 star for use of a business in the service industry such as tourism, consulting or marketing. It is simple to set up an item as long as it is a basic item with nothing too complexed. Should you need moderate or advanced settings, the limited “modifier” becomes a convoluted run-on-sentence of items – all in one category. You cannot add fee’s or percentages unless you make a modifier for each and manually calculate the percentage for every possible dollar amount. (ergo the run-on-sentence) The online store is a separate program from the register, which is a separate program of the desktop version and they all have different settings and ways of doing the same function. (huge learning curve) All three talk to each other and not on a consistent, or real time basis, SO settings are lost, changes are deleted, and functions are missing. On a good day. NEVER open all three at once. You will have to close and reopen one at a time depending on the setting you wish to edit. Discounts only work on the entire transaction. If you want to add a discount to an item, (NO you cannot add to the run-on-sentence, it will not allow a negative amount) you have to make a NEW item with a reduced price. It was easy for me to start my merchant services and simple to make my first item and modifier. Thats it. I have been fighting the program ever since. I hope Square, or someone with the same basic features, will come up with an advanced version. The prices just increased this month. It was difficult to stay. It is barely worth the frustration now. The Square Register and reader are great, so is the Register program A+. Unfortunately, you have to take your cash register off-line to edit, if you are using it at a street-front location, this can be difficult and result in loss income. I have too much invested in Square to quit now. HOWEVER, if someone comes up with a better program, I am out-a-here. Overall rating, 2.99 stars.

3

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have been using Paypal Here for my business for the last year or so. I am considering switching over to Square, mainly because when keying credit card numbers manually (not swiping the card), Paypal holds my funds for 30 days before releasing them into my account. I needed to talk with a Square rep about their holding policy on keyed transactions. I called and sure enough I was asked for a code which I didn’t have. So, I went to their website and had to sign-up for the first time, which I did. Once in the main dashboard, I clicked on “Support Center”, then “Contact”, then I selected any one choice under “Product”, then another choice under “Topic”, then I selected “Call Us” and I was presented with the phone number and a code! I called right away and spoke with Scott who answered all the questions I had and more! I don’t understand the myriad of people in this forum saying that there is no code available. I just visited the Square website and signed up for the very first time and I found the code in no time! People: you need to follow every step, as required, and you will find the code you need. Now, I don’t know if their services are really good or really bad as some report, but in their defense, there is a code available and there are live English-speaking knowledgeable reps such as Scott. He just sent an e-mail to follow up everything we discussed.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Square is the real deal, both as a credit card processor and as a POS. I have worked with and programmed several POS systems over the past 30 years, including Remanco, NCR and (for the past 20 years) Micros. I had no intention of leaving Micros, Micros left me no choice. My Micros (2006) had numerous issues that were very expensive to fix. re: Windows XP no longer supported, cc compliance issues, merchantlink fees, no local tech support. All of these issues were very time consuming, distracting and wore on my management team. Make no mistake, if you want to spend the time and money, Micros hardware is top notch, but today with the cloud, I feel hardware should be bought with the understanding that it is disposable. If the $300 iPad air broke, I’d just replace it and move on. With Micros, it felt like no matter what upgrade decision I made, at some point I’d end up right back with the same issues. I spent 6 months researching the latest POS systems and not one of them could come close to what Square could do (and for free). Using Square’s template, I wrote a Micros 3700 database onto Square and have been tweaking daily. It’s so easy, every day I find a cool new feature that will simplify my operation. The only request I have from Square would be to allow its existing customers the option to integrate other cloud based apps into their system. Specifically, I use 7shifts, and since we have so much data on 7shifts, It wouldn’t make since to switch to the authorized Square apps. But, I will hold out hope as the Square App market is small and from my perspective is just getting started.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’ve been using Square for the past year and a half. I was really pleased with the newest features that were added to make business run smoothly and help business owners be more productive. I use to use Customer Engagement Pro which was $15. This service allowed you to send emails, develop a customer loyalty program and store client information. Due to unforeseen changes within my business I had to scale back on costs, and this was one of the programs I eliminated. (I cancelled the earlier part of 2016) Now things are running smoothly and I wanted to begin with the Customer Engagement Pro service again. I went online and much to my surprise Square split up the features found in Customer Engagement Pro and are charging $15 per service. I was definitely taken aback by this. I felt it was a way to get more money for less product. They have begun to charge for everything!!! Square Appointments $30!(Which many other companies offer the service for half the cost) Email Marketing $15, Loyalty Program $15. I feel like Square is joining the masses and nickel and diming their customers to death. Stop with the extra charges. Enough is enough!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’m very disappointed with this service. I’ve had square for 3-4years. I haven’t used it much in the past, however my business is growing and it demands more options regarding payment from customers. I used it for the first time in a long while and the transaction was processed. My card swipe didn’t work so I was forced to manually enter the card number. Of course I was charged more + .15 cents. Then they now have a hold on my funds. I’m a small business and I can’t afford for this to happen. When I finally talked to them they did not explain why other than they want a better understanding of me , my customers and my business. They want my bank statements as well and I’m not to pleased with that. I really don’t think that’s any of their business!! I just want my money!! Once I do get it, I’ll never use this service again and I’ll do everything in my power to share my unpleasant experience. The way they do this is very wrong and they should be repermanded!!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’ve been using Square for my small business for about 4 years. All was well, more or less – there were a few annoying glitches but they were balanced out by our good experiences. We never had any problem with deposits, holds, etc., but it is rare for us to process more than $1000 by credit card, so perhaps that’s a factor. I probably would have stayed with Square, and given them a higher rating, if it hadn’t been for the new chip reader debacle. It has been a pain from beginning to end, culminating in my finding out (after many hours of Internet research and tech support calls to Samsung and Square) that my widely-sold, Samsung tablet is not compatible with the new, mandated hardware. This leaves my tiny business in the position of having to buy a new device to use the new reader or change providers. Since we operate on a shoestring, the choice was obvious; I decided to request a refund and change to Intuit’s service.

Unfortunately, because the new reader finally arrived in the middle of tax season, and I could tell getting it working was going to require a time commitment, I opted to tackle it when I finished our taxes (had a massive, forensic accounting task on my hands due to mess left by former employee.) Big mistake. This decision put me outside Square’s 30-day refund policy. I contacted them via email to explain why it took me so long to discover the problem was not going to be fixable. I took responsibility for putting off the task, but also noted that I made that choice due to the arcane nature of their support pages, the difficulty of quickly finding answers, and my assumption that I would get it working in the end. I believed my common device would be compatible – largely because it was not readily apparent from looking at their support pages that some devices might NOT be compatible. (In fairness to them, it turns out there is a list…but you have to know how to find it. So, not very helpful.)

I added that their support person I spoke with by phone couldn’t identify the problem, either – I had to call Samsung.

I asked Square if they would make an exception. They replied with a short email simply restating their policy. I replied that I knew their policy and, once again, explained what happened and why I did not feel totally responsible for the delay. I asked them to reconsider; they refused.

I have given this some thought over several days and have decided I’m not just being a big whiner – I still think my request was reasonable, especially for pristine, unused equipment in its original packaging. Had one of my customers come to me with a similar story, I would’ve simply granted the refund, if only for the sake of good will. As it is, I feel like Square added insult to injury, and now I will never go back. I got the distinct impression that they don’t care about me or my problems, and that my good opinion was not worth $40 to them.

3

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

So much for no hidden fees! Every review and everywhere on their website claims a straight 2.75% with no additional fees. Well, a Square sales person called me- in response to an inquiry I submitted. They answered questions and then asked me about the amount I would be charging per transaction. I own a small business- coffee shop/gift shop. I was informed sice I wouldnt have lower amounts per transaction, I would be charged the 2.75% PLUS .15 per transaction. Nowhere can I find this .15 extra. Square is not honest- find another company!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Do you know if there is a way to view cancelled tickets on square? I have an employee I suspect is canceling open tickets & pocketing the cash. It shows up as “no sale” on the activity report. Also, do you know if there is a way to turn off the ability to cancel tickets or set it up where the employee has to have a manager override in order to cancel an open ticket? If there is no way to do either of these…this is a real issue square should review & fix!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I suggest a real merchant account with a rep who is your first point of contact. As long as the average ticket is more than $20 there are much lower fees available. Paypal rates are also higher, that is why there are no monthly fees.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

(I have an employee I suspect is canceling open tickets & pocketing the cash. It shows up as “no sale” on the activity report. Also, do you know if there is a way to turn off the ability to cancel tickets or set it up where the employee has to have a manager override in order to cancel an open ticket?) Yes you can limit your employees access so they will not be able to cancel a ticket unless they enter a code. Honestly, I have not tested this, and you may have to set up, and be charged, separate employee accounts.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

If you need help trying to speak to a live person, you might as well give up. You need a code which is not easily provided. I have yet to speak to a representative because I don’t have a effin code. I spent hours trying to find a way to my situation taken care of. They help my deposits but haven’t released them. They asked for all my private business documents and I’ve sent them all and still no response. They haven’t taken care of this issue but hey they said you can still make deposits with them. WTF? Why would I keep depositing with SQUARE if your not going to release my money? I have expenses to pay off and need it done in a timely matter but hey…THERE IS NOT ONE TO TALK TO. The hell with this company!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Good Article, comments and reviews. One of my clients is considering moving to the Square, so I needed to do some new research. Thanks for all the feedback. After 11 years providing merchant accounts and 20 years of public accounting, the square is a good source for low volume merchants. If a business is processing more than $2000 per month, a real merchant account is better. Make sure you have a rep that will be around when and if you need them. Thanks Tom! I just found this site, will visit again.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We have been back and forth with customer service and the dispute team and it has not be helpful. Our company is suffering because of the Square’s lack of communication and actions. It took about 4 days to be contacted by the Square after seeing a withdraw of $5,745.66 on our account from the Square. You cannot get a hold of customer service without a code and I could not find my code anywhere. I called several times a day and emailed at least 5 times and was still not contacted by anyone.

We are a small family owned business who had a stubborn customer who made a dispute, but it did not take long for them to realize they were wrong and cancel the dispute. They made our account negative a few times and tried multiple times to take out the money. The dispute was canceled by our customer and the Square still took out the $5,745.66 from our account. The Square should have canceled the debit immediately but instead debited our account 3 days after the dispute was canceled.

This has taken up a lot of our time and we cannot conduct business without that money. We are a small business and something like this puts us in a bind. We have vendors to pay and projects to start and we can’t run smoothly because of the Square.

I am very disappointed and will be looking for a replacement for the Square. I will not be recommending the Square to anyone and I will be reviewing on every page I can find to stop people from getting the Square. We just started our business and the Square has made this nothing but difficult.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We have been back and forth with customer service and the dispute team and it has not be helpful. Our company is suffering because of the Square’s lack of communication and actions. It took about 4 days to be contacted by the Square after seeing a withdraw of $5,745.66 on our account from the Square. You cannot get a hold of customer service without a code and I could not find my code anywhere. I called several times a day and emailed at least 5 times and was still not contacted by anyone.

We are a small family owned business who had a stubborn customer who made a dispute, but it did not take long for them to realize they were wrong and cancel the dispute. They made our account negative a few times and tried multiple times to take out the money. The dispute was canceled by our customer and the Square still took out the $5,745.66 from our account. The Square should have canceled the debit immediately but instead debited our account 3 days after the dispute was canceled.

This has taken up a lot of our time and we cannot conduct business without that money. We are a small business and something like this puts us in a bind. We have vendors to pay and projects to start and we can’t run smoothly because of the Square.

I am very disappointed and will be looking for a replacement for the Square. I will not be recommending the Square to anyone and I will be reviewing on every page I can find to stop people from getting the Square. We just started our business and the Square has made this nothing but difficult.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I am currently going through a hassle with Square myself. I am an attorney that has a nation-wide practice. I rarely accept credit cards — usually just checks. However, I have had several clients that asked to be able to pay with credit cards. And, like most people, do not want to tell my clients, “No, you can’t pay me.”

To be flexible, I set-up a Square account and used their service. The particular client that I was working for had me handling 6 cases for his insurance company, and two of them were due payments on the accounts. So, I ran the 2 charges through — totaling about 3k. I have a ZBA (Zero Balance Account) for my business, which means that the account itself always has a zero balance, and there’s another account linked to that account. I authorize the payments, and when they come through, the money is transferred from the linked account to the ZBA account. It protects me from fraud, etc. (Great idea for any business owner, just so you know — and I won’t charge you for that advice 🙂 )

Because of that, Square would not be able to link my Business Checking account with Square, so I opened up an account specifically for them. They did their transfer of .49 cents, and the account was linked. Despite having close to 3k waiting to be deposited, it took Square an ADDITIONAL 3 days, after all of the transfers were done, to “approve” my bank account.

Square’s cut off for depositing funds is 8:00 pm EST. On Friday, at 8:32 pm EST, I was sent an e-mail saying that my account had been approved and that my deposits would start on their normal schedule. After looking at the deposit schedule, it appeared that it would be deposited Sunday night and be available on Monday morning — no problem.

So, the rest of Friday passes — knowing that the 3k was pending deposit — Saturday, Sunday (when the deposit was supposed to be made) … Sunday at 8:01 pm EST, I receive a notice saying that I must provide them with documentation supporting the existence of my business. I am a licensed attorney in 6 States, and over 41 jurisdictions … I have a VERY real business, and it’s not hard to discovery that.

At any rate, they asked for all of the documents that everyone else with complaints have been asking for. I sent it all to them, and still waiting to receive my money.

AFTER the fact, I researched the company (in my defense, I had a friend that used Square back in 2011-2013 and never had a single problem with them, including processing a few transactions for me). I found all of these complaints and my first thought was “Screw them, I’m suing.” I don’t need to hire and attorney or seek legal advice. I had lunch with the Attorney General of my State less than a month ago. I worked for the United States Department of Justice as a prosecutor for almost 9 years. I know EXACTLY how to file Class Actions suits, get the Attorney General to write letters, etc.

Then I fully read the Seller Agreement …

First, you cannot sue Square. When you set up the account, you agreed to Arbitration. Arbitration is much faster than a lawsuit, and costs much less … However, the way it is worded in the Seller Agreement essentially confirms that they would make you fly out to San Francisco to have a hearing. Not really worth it for a few thousand dollars — hotel, rental car, food, etc. would cost more. They even generously agree to pay for the Arbitration Fees (typically less than $1000.00).

Second, you cannot even join a Class Action lawsuit — should some trailblazing attorney even attempt one (very few would, because of the Arbitration Agreement and all of the litigation involved to get around that) … But, by using their service, you specifically agree to *NOT* be a member of a Class Action Suit. Specifically, Paragraph 51 contains the following language:

“ANY ARBITRATION UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL BE ONLY BE ON A INDIVIDUAL BASIS; CLASS ARBITRATIONS, CLASS ACTIONS, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTIONS, AND CONSOLIDATION WITH OTHER ARBITRATIONS ARE NOT PERMITTED, AND YOU ARE WAIVING YOUR RIGHTS TO HAVE YOUR CASE DECIDED BY A JURY AND TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION AGAINST SQUARE. ”

Finally, you’ll also notice that you agree to *NOT* participate in a Private Attorney General Action — which is where you contact the Attorney General, and they institute a suit to right whatever wrong Square decided to commit that day.

So, my first though was “How to get around” all of that language. I thought of 2 options: First, I could, on my clients behalf, sue Square in their name (and just represent them in the suit) for not processing the payment as they requested, i.e. the money was taken off their credit card, they are now (typically) being charged interest on that money, and must make credit card payments. The way I thought about doing that was simply refusing to continue to do work on THOSE cases, until I was actually provided my money.

There’s a lot of legal maneuvering involved, but nothing I haven’t got around before. However, the Seller Agreement essentially stops that: Paragraph 46 provides that you will indemnify Square, which means that you will support them in any lawsuit against them for, “any transaction submitted by you through the Services (including without limitation the accuracy of any Seller Content or product, service, or transaction information that you provide or any claim or dispute arising out of products or services offered or sold by you).” So, that option wouldn’t work.

Then, I thought, well, I could sue my client for not receiving the payment, and then have the Client interplead Square(a civil maneuver that allows a defendant or plaintiff to bring a third-party into a suit, when the suit cannot be properly decided without having them present). I would essentially still be able to sue them, because *I* am not the one who brought them into the suit, my client would have. And while there would still be some issues with the Indemnity clause, I wouldn’t worry so much about that … because, again, *I* am not suing them, I am suing my client. And they are not being sued over a transaction that *I* processed, rather I am suing a client, and the client is upset that THEIR money was never released to me, per the agreement with THEIR credit card company.

Then I found another nasty little clause: “You agree that our receipt of transaction proceeds satisfies the Buyer’s obligations to you.” This can be found in paragraph 8. So, even if I were to sue my client, and they interpleaded Square, both Square and the client (whom I really do not wish to sue) would get the suit dismissed (Square would file the Motion to Dismiss on their behalf).

In short, the only possible way to be able to get at Square is if some Attorney General instituted a suit against them for some type of fraud. The interesting part about that, however, is that Square is not violating ANY laws — yet. The Sellers Agreement specifically states that they can hold your money: “At any time and from time to time, we may temporarily suspend or delay payments to you and/or designate an amount of funds that you must maintain in your Square Account or in a separate reserve account (a “Reserve”) to secure the performance of your payment obligations under this Agreement. We may require a Reserve for any reason.”

The problem with screaming fraud, and getting someone in power to listen to ANYONE (even me, who worked with and for a lot of these guys for YEARS), is that you AGREE to this. And Reserve’s are not outside of normal business practice. A customer and challenge a charge to a credit card for up to 180 days. So, most merchant services either, a) are credit based, and waive the reserve because of credit worthiness; or b) require 10% or more of whatever you charge to be placed in reserve … It unfortunately is not fraud.

It sucks. Square SUCKS. And from someone that knows the *FULL* ramifications of liable actions, will say that they are EXTREMELY unethically and have VERY bad business practices from their clients point of view. I tried to call 3 times today, nothing. Put in for a Call Back, nothing.

Maybe I’ll get my money, maybe I won’t. But, I can assure you, after reading the Seller Agreement — which I should have done to start with (but, again, didn’t foresee any issues, and knew I wouldn’t be using it too much) — my account will be promptly cancelled.

Horrible company.

Luckily, 3k is not that big of a deal to me, but for a WHOLE lot of America, it is. ESPECIALLY small businesses. And it sucks that they have gotten away with so much. But, my STRONG suggestion would be to continue posting complaints, continue filing with the Better Business Bureau. File Complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, specifically, based upon False or Misleading Advertising. In their Support section, Square states, “With Square, you can choose when to receive your funds through one of our three deposit options. Square doesn’t have deposit limits with our standard or custom schedules. We won’t hold funds based on the amount, frequency, or type of transaction.” See https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/3807-what-are-square-s-deposit-schedule-options

The statement “We won’t hold funds …” is actually untrue. Because if you first open an account and run a large amount of money (I don’t know what it is, but say $500 or more), they do hold … because they want you to send them reams of paperwork to “verify” your business. That’s False or Misleading.

I’m filing a complaint with the FTC, and FULLY encourage everyone else to, as well. It may not SEEM like much at first, but the FTC will sue them QUICKLY. “When the FTC finds a case of fraud perpetrated on consumers, the agency files actions in federal district court for immediate and permanent orders to stop scams; prevent fraudsters from perpetrating scams in the future; freeze their assets; and get compensation for victims.” See https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising

Imagine how they’d feel if THEIR assets were frozen.

Something to think about.

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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Hi, I’m looking for a good POS system to use for a small cafe. I’ve talked to a few merchants who said they use Square Register as their point-of-sale, yet process transactions through Moneris. Is this possible? I had downloaded Square to try it out, but it doesn’t let me finish the transaction without going through payment processing. Anyone can shed light on this? Thanks!

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Please, please read through all the negative comments on this thread, then choose any other POS merchant service provider than Square! If you choose this company, you are playing roulette with your money, as they are known to arbitrarily cancel your account and hold your funds for 90+ days, for no good reason. Once they cancel your account, you will have NO WAY to speak with anyone, as you are no longer a customer.

Thankfully, when this happened to my company, we had only run 3 charges, so we were able to get our customers to cancel their charge, and allow us to re-run under our old merchant account. Many small business owners on here have not been so lucky. There are too many reputable merchant service providers out there to risk your business on this unethical and scrupulous merchant provider.

Good luck!

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Hi, Tom. I was wondering if you could give me a recommendation. I own and run a small business. It is a sensory gym for children that focuses on special needs children. We are very new and small and average about $3300-$4200 in sales currently. I have shopkeep and use payment depot to process the transactions. However, I use square for my online store and to send invoices for groups and other programs when parents cannot come in to make payments. The issue I am having is my funds through payment depot seem to be taking longer and longer for me to get. Whereas, my funds from invoices and online deposits through square, I almost always get the very next day. With payment depot, I have had to wait until as late as Thursday, to get money from sales on a Sunday. It has caused issues with insufficient funds as we desperately rely on those funds being deposited. I was considering switching to square due to their promptness with depositing funds but I have read all these horror stories with funds being held. Any recommendations?

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DO NOT SIGN UP. I own multiply vacation rental properties and as well as two other businesses. I signed up with square yesterday and processed 2 transactions, 1 for $500 and 1 for $7100. I have funds from another processor deposit on almost a daily basis into my checking account. I own 2,other business with money’s going to the same bank. Then I get an email that they deactivated my account and can not release my funds for 90 days or I could refund and get another form of payment but refund will not be processed for 60 days. I am sure the guest who I charged the $7100 For a three month rental would be fine with thus. This gentleman is doing special forces training in Fort Walton Beach, Fl. The card was a military credit card paying for his lodgings. I rent to these guys all the time. Square says decision they say is irreversible but try talking to a person. Do not sign with anyone you can not get a live person on the phone. That should have been my first clue.

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They are holding almost $15,000 since October 2015. I call them almost every day and they say they can not call the department in charge for this kind of situation. I am so frustrated and upset. I went back to Chase Merchant Services because they provide officers that can resolve any issues over the phone. Cheap costs! This is an unlawful appropriation of funds. I would totally sue them if I would gain me some profit from it.

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I did get my money but it took 5 months and here is how I was able to contact them. I had two merchant accounts with Square. Somehow the account that they were holding the $15,000 did not offer an option to get a code to call them. It seemed like they knew there was a claim to be made so that option, the code to call them, was not available anywhere when I logged into the account. On the other account it was available so that is how I was able to call them. I would request a claim code through the other account which had no pending transactions and once I was able to get through and speak with an operator, who was only capable of seeing the balances on her screen, I would explain what I was going through with my other account. I spoke with them like 10 times without getting any immediate response. All they said was that they had to pass the case to their supervisors and when I requested to speak with the supervisor they said that they were not available. Square is a scam. They should not be allowed to conduct business. They are committing conversion and illegal appropriation of funds which both are illegal. Stay away from Square!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I did get my money but it took 5 months and here is how I was able to contact them. I had two merchant accounts with Square. Somehow the account that they were holding the $15,000 did not offer an option to get a code to call them. It seemed like they knew there was a claim to be made so that option, the code to call them, was not available anywhere when I logged into the account. On the other account it was available so that is how I was able to call them. I would request a claim code through the other account which had no pending transactions and once I was able to get through and speak with an operator, who was only capable of seeing the balances on her screen, I would explain what I was going through with my other account. I spoke with them like 10 times without getting any immediate response. All they said was that they had to pass the case to their supervisors and when I requested to speak with the supervisor they said that they were not available. Square is a scam. They should not be allowed to conduct business. They are committing conversion and illegal appropriation of funds which both are illegal. Stay away from Square!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Just wanted to leave a positive review amidst all the negative ones. For a small online business Square has been a good choice (although I have only recently worked with them). Their e-mail responses to my questions have been timely (within 2 days). I do not see a telephone option, however, as mentioned above when you contact their support people. Perhaps that has recently changed. Although Tom had his site up and running within an hour or so, it took me (not tech savvy) and my son many hours to figure out how to create an online site. My one complaint is that when a customer orders more than one of the same item, the shipping price does not increase. For example, if I charge $3 for shipping one item and someone orders 10, the shipping stays at $3. Although I inquired if there was a fix for this, the support people mentioned adding modifiers or price points, but not being tech savvy I could not figure out how to apply this to my situation. Do I make a long list for every single item [ i.e. 1 book, 2 books, etc and each with a different price?] That seems tedious and there is still that little box that allows the customer to increase the quantity without the shipping price increasing proportionately. Any suggestions?

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We created a Square account and ran a few transactions everything looked good. We then ran $8000 through the system and they indefinitely held the money. There is no one to talk to. When you go to the website to resolve an issue they require a code to call and when you follow the link to get the code it goes to an FAQ and there is no code. This is a fraudulent and non-responsive organization. We are reporting them to all of the state and federal agencies that regulate the credit card industry. Do not make that mistake we made and think it is a fast way to start taking payments. Take the tie to get with a real processor or work with your bank or even Paypal. Square is bad for business we still do not have anyway to get the $8000 back or speak to anyone. When we send in emails we get non-responsive replies. Stay away from Square.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Just received an e-mail from this company that must be a phishing scam. Notice of impending debit of $3K from a bank account I have never heard of e-mailed directly to my corp e-mail address with links back to the same company website found via this article and any google searches. I have never used this company for my business before, but I had researched them awhile back and must have given them my e-mail address. Trying to contact them to ensure they won’t be charging me 3k has come up with no response. They won’t take my call unless I have a customer code which makes me submit a whole lot of private information on-line. Very Phishy, beware of providing any information to this company. Negative stars would be more appropriate, since all they have ever done is waste my time and patience.

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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I really want to give 0 star. I called the customer service because the square stand is broken (I only used few times) , but they are not willing to help me to fix it. I strongly not recommend people to purchase their products!

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Square should be removed from the market. I used them for 2 years. Loved them! Then, I process a card and the money does not go into my account! It seems I must go through a new “verification process”! Well, here I am 24 hours later (spent the last 10 hours jumping through hoops for them) and I have to refund my customer because Square will NOT deposit into the very same account I have used for 2 years. When I finally got to speak with a customer service representative, he would not allow me to speak with a supervisor. RIO, YOU SUCK. You are only slightly above a debt collector on the crap pile…..worthless.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Poor customer support, rather no customer support. Squareup lists a phone support number but requires a Customer Code in order to accept the phone call. I have an active account and have logged onto the site and searched through accounting and dashboard pages and found no Customer Code. The support page doesn’t even provide instructions on obtaining code. It appears to be purposely hidden to reduce support calls from customers.

I’ve had an account for almost 3 years with Square and never really needed to speak to customer support so this was a complete surprise when I noticed my deposits were no longer being made but my customers were being charged. The funds are just sitting with Square in pending deposit status. The only option I had was to submit a service ticket through the online form which generated a case number but that is not accepted by the phone filter system.

I expect better customer support from a financial service company.

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I’m having problems also but found a way to get the code. From the squareup.com home page in the dark left side of the page scroll down & click on “support center”, At the top right of that page click on the blue “contact us”, On the next page “select a product” (basically select whatever applies best to you) & then your code will appear. Be sure to write it down or keep the web page up while you call. A little complicated but hope that helps!

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I recently made payment through this money request from a dealer using it for the first time…they told me the company wanted to hold her money for 6 months , so we are trying to refund me …it is not going very well so far with little to no customer support…if these crooks think there going to hold and steal my money they have another thing coming

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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

In your article you say if you had a small/low transaction business you would recommend square. Do you consider a bar/grill grossing around $250k to fit into that size? We currently only accept cash or local check with an tam on site.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Lost $1800 business with these guys, because they froze my account. Spent hours trying to get through to them. There was no support, and I had to refund the money to my clients in hopes of rerouting another direction. The clients then thought it was me. They took their business elsewhere. That kind of money hurts this time of year.

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DO NOT USE SQUARE!!! Nothing but horrible experiences with this company. You will run into a problem with them and when you do, there is no avenue for support.

What happened in my case is they out of no where froze my accounts and to reactivate asked for every piece of information you could imagine. This included: all of my corporate documents, bank statements, LinkedIn information, scans of every document you could imaging, more than the government asks for.

They may have had a good reason for asking for all of this, but who knows, they never told me and there are no avenues to find out. I have had to deactivate my account and get my clients to contact their credit card companies to remove the charges held in my account.

Nothing but horrible experiences with this company, I would recommend using any other company before giving them a try,

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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I own a furniture store and Square deactivated my merchant account in October 2015 because a customer’s card failed to process a few times. They sent me an abrupt email saying that the decision to deactivate the account was final and that they are holding my funds (from the same customer that actually successfully processed the payment finally) for 90 days until releasing it to my bank account. In addition, I was left with no way to process credit card payments from my retail customers for a week until I got a replacement solution (Shopify). Today, I found that that not only are they still holding on to my money, they continued to charge for the Customer Engagement Pro tool on my DEACTIVATED account for the past two months. This was the last draw and I had to write this review to warn others of this inconsiderate company.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the great design of the product, but Square falls way short of actually understanding a customer’s true needs and they left me stranding at a crucial time of my business, with no real support available. I am staying far away from this company and will advise all of my business owning friends to be ware of them as well.

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I’ve had the same problem after making $2,097.53 dollars in transactions money has not been deposited, customer service does not respond or say they can do nothing. Lying saying my account has been deactivated but I have logged on and downloaded reports since then. I’m switching to BankCard because Swipe seems to be another scam. All my transactions were accepted without dispute yet no money can be found and the software says no deposits for this time period. Then after signing up for instant deposit it’s not available although they approve your card. Been holding my money for more than a month. Yet, they tell you to continue using swipe. Are they crazy?

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WARNING WARNING WARNING. Stay away from this company. They will hold your funds for 6 MONTHS without even the courtesy of advising you. Just try to get any type of customer service. Forget it. Call the support number and you cannot proceed with a “customer code”. They instruct you to log in to get the customer code, except when you do, there is no option to obtain a customer code. There is no way you will ever speak to a live person. If you submit an email, you MAY get a cryptic response directing you to the website, which of course is no help. A real horror show.

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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

If you are a seller that sells products, you are being warned. If a customer file a dispute for whatever reason. Square will automatically debit your bank account and refund the customer. Square doesn’t even request the customer, to return the product back to the seller, nor do they have any type of return process in place. I have sent endless emails asking about how they handle refunds / returns / proof of returns, and never get an answer. So in all, the customer can keep the product and get their money back, with no questions asked. Square says they offer seller protection, but that’s a joke. Square sells they will challenge your dispute to the customer, but if they can’t even pick up a phone, or return a simple email, what makes you think, they will actually go out of their way to challenge the dispute vs the customer for you? It’s a joke! Square committed FRAUD 3x vs me. Customer kept the product, and got their money back. I lost $1100

There is a new app called e-mobile-pay. 25 cents per transaction fee, and 100% guaranteed, no chargebacks! This is what they say. NO i don’t work this company. Has anyone tried e-mobile-pay? 25 cents and 100% guaranteed no chargebacks is very very very tempting. I don’t see any reviews regarding this company. I seen reviews in the google store, but i think that’s coming from their investors

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HORRIBLE customer service and merchant protection. I have been happy with their service for 3 yrs. We have a 5-star rating from our customers using Square. ONE customer complains about wanting his money back for a transaction he knew was a used part (it is in working condition, etc, etc…) he probably decided to just not buy it anymore….and Square decides, without listening to us, to return his money and take it all out of our account. I have contacted our bank and we will get the money back. Absolute disregard of anything we had to say about the transaction. Now we dont have the money or the merchandise because the client has disappeared and not answering our request to return the merchandise. Goodbye $2700. THANK YOU SQUARE. You just lost a client.

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So did the customer get to keep the part and get his money back? This happened to me 3x. Customer keeps product and gets money back. Your bank will get your money back, but you will have to no longer use square after this, because they will continue to auto debit your account on a weekly basis. They will send you emails a head of time. You have to close down your bank account that you have linked to square. From this point, you shouldn’t use square anymore. Square allows fraud, and will never challenge the dispute for you, when they say they will. Yeah right, they can’t even pick up a phone, yet alone, answer emails

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Correct. Ive had my bank return the money to the account and the next day, Square goes in again and took it back. This happened 2 times until we closed the account so they could not do it anymore.

In the meantime, the ‘client’ is nowhere to be found. My merchandise is still gone. We have moved on from Square to another service. Will NEVER use them again and will NEVER recommend them to any of our network businesses.

Anyone wants an iPad stand for free?

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I just had the most unpleasant experience with Square. I charged an amount totaled $3100 to a customer for sale of equipment on 11/11/2015. They started by asking me to fill out a verification form and provide them with an Invoice, my ID and 3 bank statements which I did immediately. I get an email back asking me to provide more information about my relationship with the customer, which I found pretty strange, but yet, I provided them with that. Today 11/16 and after 6 days of holding my funds, they decided to reject my transactions and asked me to refund the money to the customer. The reason they say is that I am violating the terms of service agreement. here is the email I received “Under our Terms of Service, you cannot process prepaid cards, gift cards, or your own credit card using your Square account. The Square Terms of Service also prohibit using Square as a money transfer system. You must provide a legitimate good or service in exchange for every payment processed with Square.” ,So I read the terms of service agreement section by section and did not find that my transactions violate any of the sections in the agreement. My sale was for equipment and an invoice was provided. I did not charge a gift card, prepaid card, nor it was my own credit card!!! and definitely that was not a money transfer!!! Asked to speak to a manager, they refused!! I process over $40,000 a year of transactions using merchant services. I thought switching to square would save me some money. But it looks like the money I would save will be spent on medications for headache caused by Square’s complications. I think I will stay with Bank of America merchant services. Business owners beware

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

There is no mention in this article of the customer and their risk with Square. In August 2015 I tried to make a purchase from a merchant using Square. The merchant swiped one, then two of my cards – saying thhey were both declined. I finally had to write a check. Come to find out that both banks for those cards automatically declined the purchase simply because it was processed through Square. When I called them – I learned that the bank knew of significant hacking issues through Square, but that square had decided not to make them public to consumers and merchants. I had to go through significant processes while on vacation to get both of my cards unlocked and accessible again. I will never run a credit card through a merchant that uses Square again – and will take my custom elsewhere rather if that is the only option.

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I’ve had square for about a week. I’ve taken all the steps they asked me to but I’m getting a little worried that all the transactions I made are taking to long to process. I should have did a little more research before I started taking payments with square. Although my transactions are not to large totaling a little over 600$ it’s still my money I trusted them with. The customer service so far has been horrible and unreachable. After reading the reviews I’m starting to think I will never see those funds. I don’t see how a company can steal fromantic it’s clients and get away with it as if it’s legal. I’m hope for a positive outcome but if the worst happens I will start the law suit circle as I have the means and resources to do so. If you are interested in joining me for a chance to recover funds and you have proof of your stolen transaction contact me at this email jakielarks@yahoo.com.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

i am in the process of deciding on what system will best serve my needs – besides a small gallery i have a restaurant and i want to use square for my POS system – it seems to have all the components i will need – you indicate square is in the process of fixing some of the things (holding funds, cancelling accts., poor service support, no reasons given for taking certain actions because of security issues with no explanation as to what the security issue is) i have been using square for my gallery for a month with no problems – i am however very concerned about funds being held in my restaurant biz – i operate on a slim margain and need every dollar to keep operating – you have given square four stars and reading the first 5 or 6 reviews on your site, a lot of one stars show up with a number of really pissed off folks – what do you base your rating on? thx in advance for your responce –

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Holding funds for no reason. Opened account October 2nd 2015 and verified bank. Account active. Processed a payment October 31st in the amount of $850 for my business. I get an email from Square November 2nd that my account is deactivated because they cannot support my business type. And that this decision is final. Said to either refund payment I received and use another processor or wait till 2-3 business days after January 31 and a this amount will be deposited into my bank account. Its obviously fraud, you can’t close down someones bank account with money in it and hold onto it, nor can a processor hold money. This dates back to the early Paypal days when my companies small business was crippled by a 10% reserve holding of the average balance. I’m looking forward to the day I get a class action lawsuit email, for now I have no choice but to put this on every site possible since they have no customer service. This is a huge win for independent processors, don’t use Square, don’t put your business at risk.

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I had a contractor do some work for me on my house. He billed me by sending me an invoice through square. I paid the bill in full (my mistake), and i don’t have a square account. I just paid the invoice. he did half the job, and hasn’t showed up in 2 weeks. I have called and emailed him, but he doesn’t respond. Is there a way to get a refund through square for this, or am i screwed because i don’t have a square account. reading reviews tells me they are terrible at customer support, so it sounds like im screwed

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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Oh, do what customers did to me. File a dispute with your bank. Square will instantly debit the contractors account and give you all of your money back. You can keep the services the contractor did and get your money back! Square won’t even explain or answer to the contractor, no matter what

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have used Square from day one. I have never had any problems at all! Ever! I am not a shill for Square. I use it for two brick and mortar business. A retail business ($30,000+ monthly in Square transactions) and for a professional services business. Never had funds put on hold ever. I have never needed customer support because Square works so well. I have never met another business owner who has had a bad experience either and I have met a lot. I also use Square’s new payroll processing service as well. It is a fraction of the cost of other payroll companies I have used and works flawlessly!Obviously the people with complaints have done something wrong that violated Square policy. They are not telling the whole story. Don’t expect to sign up with Square and suddenly run a $5000.00 credit card transaction the first day. No credit card processor in the world would allow that. Credit card fraud is rampant and Square is just protecting all parties concerned.

5

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SCAM!!! Avoid at all cost. They waited until I had a large deposit pending, requested all kinds of information about me and my business and then deactivated the account holding all funds recommending that I provide refunds to my customers. I ALREADY SHIPPED THE GOODS!!! Now I am out the merchandise and my funds for 3 – 6 months. Extensive history of merchant processing with another company but when I offered that info for their review they declined saying it wasn’t needed. Based on other reviews it is clear I’m not the first. I was told by their customer service team that they don’t get all the business information upfront because they can wait until there is a large deposit and then they can get whatever they want.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have been reading reviews on the web since last Friday when square closed my account and I started to see pattern. They sign you up without too many questions immediately and every transaction goes flawlessly for weeks or months until one day, usually Friday night they inform you that the account is been deactivated for suspicious activities and there is a 90 days hold on your money. I will post the letter with the “final” decision later. I am sure all of as got it word by word. With the account closed there is no customer service person to talk to only email which ask you for more information. Here is a copy of the email I received twice in n row. Is is also send to Blake at the same time, no idea who that is. I received 4 of those in a different days.

Even after you reply to those, the machine keeps sending you more of the same. In a mean time somebodies post gave me the idea to start tweeting and posting directly on their web site and facebook page my story. It kind of work, today i received a phone call from the company. They still insist on holding my money because guess what? My client paid me with the same credit card few different transactions on different days the same amount of money. What are they supposed to do, use different card every time? ABSOLUTE NONCENCE. Than he advise me to go into my account which they closed, do a return and ask for a cheque. I am afraid that my client wont get the return and I will have no rights to ask for my money from Square. Many people are saying that 6,8 months even a year later they don’t see a penny. I haven’t seen one proof yet that people get their money even after 90 days. To be fair will give them 1 star for the perfect 2 months until they decided to hang me.Tweeting that guy got them to call me today for first time.Mr Jack Dorsey CEOEmail jack@squareup.comWebsite https://squareup.comPersonal Twitter @jack

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I wrote a quick review when we first started using square and the square stand a few months ago and I have to say its been perfect for us. In addition to fast processing of transactions, the reporting features in the dashboard are fantastic. I’m particularly impressed by Squares addition of contactless card readers and the education they provide in why they’re important. Our transactions are pretty consistent in amounts- anywhere from 30-100 per. I can only guess but there must be something some of you users are doing that raises flags.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I wrote the following negative review back in July, pretty much sums up why you’re playing russian roulette if you remain an active customer of Square:

“If something seems too good to be true, it probably is… Well, that’s an understatement when dealing with Square. This company has the worst customer service and is very underhanded in how it deals with merchants. They will “approve” you up front, send a reader, then after your first 2 or 3, or even 5 or 10 charges I’ve heard, they will ask for a bunch of personal information, bank statements, etc, then freeze your account for 90 days due to “high risk” activity. This happened to my company a year or so ago, but luckily, the 3 or 4 customers I had just run charges for did a chargeback, so I was able to re-run with my older, more expensive merchant bank. There are 1000’s of horror stories out there, where businesses have had large sums of money held for months or even years. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY IF YOU HAVEN’T DEALT WITH THEM YET!!!! If you are a customer, stop using Square and cancel your bank account they link to immediately. Once you stop doing business, I have heard they will summarily withdraw funds, without informing you before or why they did it after. These people are inept at best and complete criminals at worst… ”

Your question shouldn’t be, what is wrong with all these people with the horror stories, but what is wrong with Square’s business practices and processes to cause so many businesses to write such terribly negative reviews about their experiences. Not a single former customer who’s had their accounts frozen and money held for 90+ days have been given a specific reason for the action, nor an explanation of a specific action they took to cause the automatic trigger that “froze” their account. So, keep on using Square if you wish, but know that today, tomorrow, next month, or a year from now, you might hit that undisclosed trigger, and you too will be posting your horror story on this and other review sites. All I can say is, GOOD LUCK!….

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Closed my account do to suspicious activity. I haven’t done anything suspect. They won’t talk to me about it. They won’t communicate with me via email or anything. They are even holding my funds for 90 days. SCAM

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

the only way to get your money back sooner is to file a dispute with the BBB. check out their complaint section. you will see square refunding those who they steal and hold money from. sometimes you have to take it to another level since square is too incompetent

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Thought this product would be a very convenient way to process transactions wirelessly as well as a great back up payment method should there be an issue with our main merchant account.

On August 29th in the greater Vancouver area we had major windstorms knocking out the power in our area. I thought it was great that I could still process transactions for my business although the power was out and our interact machine was not working and had clients in the business that received services and were required to pay prior to leaving.

I processed about $3000 in transactions which is not a lot for our store but enough to be an issue if we do not receive those funds.

I received an email from square saying they were not going to send me the funds and I would have to send them a photo ID (which I did), 3 bank statements (which I did), website, Linkedin profile etc etc

Did everything they asked for and then just received a letter saying they are deactivating my account as they suspect that the transactions or activity is fraudulent? Which is weird as no transactions were manually keyed in, all were with a card. Some of the people we processed are square users as well and square had their previous info on file.

I also supplied a detailed letter as to why I had to use my square reader in the first place.

They are holding all funds hostage for 90 days without interest and deactivated my account?

I would definitely try another payment reader before using square. The cherry on top is I got a letter with a note on the bottom saying. “Oh and all decisions are finale!” lol

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I been reading the reviews here and to be honest I did not believe the negative reviews on square since I have been a customer for over 3 years and did not have to call them not even once since I opened up my account, worked flawlessly. But to my surprise I had the same issue last week that I have been reading. Up until 2 months ago I have been making small transactions, $50 here $200 there. No problems, always in my account the next day. 1 week ago had a large transaction from a customer, a little over $14k, I get an email from square asking for verification to make sure it’s not fraudulent translation, asking for a copy of the invoice and a few questions. I responded with the necessary documents and the information they requested. The next day they asked for more verification, like the last 6 months of statements from the account square is depositing the money in…..I supplied the info. That same night I received an email informing me they are suspending my account and placing a hold on the funds for 90 days…..no explanation at all as to why.

Of course I called my customer and explained the situation, he called his credit card company and credit card company is canceling the transaction and refunding his money. I don’t see how square can keep the money for 90 days, what gives them the right to do so. This smells like a class action lawsuit to me, and I will speak to an attorney to see what can be done. I feel lucky we have a good relationship with the customer, but still a little worried about it, I feel that I lost my credibility with this customer and might have lost a large account over square shady business practice. In the meantime I called chase and applied for a merchant account with them, it takes them 3-5 business days to complete the process and yes they have a monthly fee and a bit more expensive but well worth it with the extra expense. That’s my story. I think square is great for small translations or if you can afford to have your money on hold with square for a length of time they dictate, if you are not in this position…….I would definitely not recommend them, spend the extra money and protect your money.

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What a piece of crap company!!!!! We do high purchases. They ask for information to verify the transactions. I give it to them, than they cancel our account and hold our funds for 90 days!!!! We have been in business for 35 years and have never had any issues with any merchant processor. Everything was fine with square unit we started doing our major transactions. This company is a scam!!!!!

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Do not use this app. I sent money to wrong party he agreed to return it once he received last Thursday. He has still not received it. I have emailed the app six times and still no response it is Tuesday. Best part is this app has no phone number so the money is bascially gone.

Thanks square cash!!!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I thought square was a great tool for my small business as well, until things went wrong. They will Process your payments and hold onto your money for as long as they want. They will give you excuses as to why they are holding your money for up to 120 days! There are fake reviews on here, obviously written by Square employees claiming that Square is a great company and others that say they would give Square five stars. If you say you give Square five stars it’s not because you haven’t been screwed by Square. It’s because you haven’t been screwed by Square yet. it will happen eventually and when it does you will wish you had listened to the many reviews and warnings. I myself learned the hard way not to process my credit card payments with a illegitimate companys like Square.

1

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This is exactly what has happened to my company. Square has been holding onto money that is supposed to daily direct deposited for nearly two months. They are no longer responding to emails and have not initiated the call, which they insisted is the only way they are able to settle the problem. They have the phone number they are supposed to call and we’ve emailed several times to remind them. Something is clearly going wrong that they want to hide.

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This company needs to be stopped. DO NOT USE THEM FOR ANY REASON! We own(ed) a small furniture store and design firm. As many know, running a small business is tough, so we had suppliers provide us with furniture for a huge tent sale. We opened a Square account so we could process sales out in the tent. The sale went great and put our business back on its feet. HOWEVER, we received an email from SQUARE stating that they were going to keep ALL of our funds from the sale for a period of 90 days, with no explanation, and stated “our decision is final.” They put our company out of business. Ninety days has gone by, and STILL NO MONEY.

1

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Just read your review of Square and have had identical experience, although I haven’t had to go out of business yet. Today was 90 days and i just got an email from them stating that they are holding my money for another 90 days! Just curious – did you ever get your money? I am considering getting a lawyer – did you try that? Thanks, Cindy

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have been using Square for several years now, both for brick & mortar as well as on the road as various retail garden and antique shows using both Ipad and Android cell phone. My first experience with Square was several years ago when while at a high volume revenue show, my traditional credit card merchant machine that I paid over $700 for could not pick up the wifi signal at the convention center. I quickly ran to the Fed Ex office downstairs, purchased a $10 Square swipe device, signed up and BAMMM! I processed over $10K in retail sales at the show without any problems, funds held back or chargebacks from customers. Since then I have not looked back and have not used the clunky hard-wired machine. Because of the nature of my business, my transactions can be as little as $10 or well into 5 figures. Never have any of the funds been held back. As far as customer service, they are very responsive and quick to send out extra multiple readers (free). The on-line reports are absolutely phenomenal, unlike with traditional merchant service where you have multiple different websites & telephone numbers to access financial data or technical service. I actually had five different contacts I had to use with my prior merchant account in order to get the equivalent of what Square provides. Also, after all-in with monthly satellite fees, statement fees, Am Exp Fees, interchange and bank charges, every year it would be about 3.1% overall fee towards the processing of credit card transactions. With square, the flat fee of 2.75% with built-in reporting, on-line cash register, inventory control and a multitude of other features that are simply second nature, I can’t imagine not using it. All transactions are online; no more paper receipts floating around in shoe boxes categorized by month. Customers are emailed their receipts…if their is a dispute you can access the receipt with signature on-line. Even sales tax reporting has become easier – travelling from state to state at different events, the sales tax rate changes. I simply create a new tax code for the event and apply it to the transaction. I can pull reports for specific dates and sales tax, fees and gross/net revenue is all there. The system is super user friendly, especially to non-techies like myself. This is an amazing system for brick-and-mortar as well as a retailer on the road. I have processed hundred of thousands of $$$ on the little tiny white readers (yes, they get worn out…just replace them for free) both on my Ipad and mostly, Android phone. I believe in this company wholeheartedly and would recommend them for any business or even for those who run back yard tag sales. I have given away readers to people asking about the product – just try it out…you won’t look back! My next step is converting my existing non-shopping cart friendly website to being completely Square hosted…based on what I have experienced for the past few years, I am sure Square will not let me down on the next store I am about to open …on the web! FIVE STARS***FIVE STARS***FIVE STARS***

5

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I would leave them 0 stars if I could. STAY AWAY FROM SQUARE if you want your money and want to succeed. 2 TIMES they held thousands and thousands of dollars from me for 3 months. There is no excuse for that long. A few extra days makes sense to make sure its a legit transaction, but THREE MONTHS?? Thats them being criminals and making interest on other peoples money. STAY AWAY!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We have been using Square up for Credit cards for several years. Deposits always arrive within 3 days to our bank account.We have begun in the last month to use the Square Register. After the first weekend we are overjoyed with it. we have bar coded our stock and checkout is quick and accurate.We will be opening a Square Market store in the near future. Only issue I see with that is the market loads up all the inventory on the first page that you access. This can take a while to render when you have over 700 items.I would recommend Square up to any small business which has a shoestring budget.

4

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

This is my 2nd review. For a business of our size and kind (sitdown/takeout restaurant, average ticket ~20.00, ~1k card sales/day) the Square solution works perfect. We switched from another P.O.S. system and will never look back. Customer support has been outstanding, including live training sessions on new features. Their Square Capital option works flawlessly as well. So, to the people who use Square to run large transactions, it might not be the best fit. But just because someone selects the improper tool does not make Square the problem.

Just our USD 0.02 🙂

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have a small business I was with them for over a year, and all of a sudden a couple of transactions said on my end that were approved, customer signed for them square issued a receipt and 2 days later they were declined. I emailed there customer support to obtain a code and said they would call me. I emailed them again and said that they had tried to call me and that I didn’t pick up the phone. I email them again and no response.Customer support sucks I would never do business with them again. I am still waiting for my money. ???? How could it say it was approved customer signed for it and 2 days later you get no money in to your account. People beware you might think you will get paid and you don’t. I rather take checks if they bounce you have the District Attorney go after them or CASH only.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

First of all, a large company with 500+ employees but NO ALIVE PERSON can answer the customer service phone. Oh, this company also hasn’t ANY customer service phone that can let people who are not customer to call. MUST BE WITH CUSTOMER CODE. BUT, Square DISCONNECTED my boyfriend account.

Secondly, a large company only respond customer emails BUT they only answer the SAME MESSAGES in EACH EMAIL! Everything square respond to the any customer use COMPUTER! we are human not computer!

PLEASE RESPECT YOUR CUSTOMER and GIVE IT BACK THEIR MONEY!! WE ARE REALLY DISAPPOINT AND UPSET! The customer got the email that his account is DISCONNECTED and his customer code isn’t work AT ALL EITHER!

1

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Having an ongoing nightmare with Square! I own a small plumbing company and have been using Square for about 5 to 6 years. December of last year my husband did a plumbing bi pass for a property owner whoLives out of town but has a rental property that is local. We e mailed him a quote of 1800.00 and he agreed via phone to start work on Dec 19th. We finished work the following day and the tenant signed off on the work being completed as agreed in the written estimate. The customer paid with a Visa card over the phone using square. Four months later on April 13th I received a chargeback notice from square stating that the customer had reported the charge as fraudulent. I was asked to provide documentation proving that the charge was legitimate. I provided the invoice signed and dated by the tenant showing that we did in fact do the documented work at the customers property. Square said they would submit the documents to the customers bank and the dispute process would take up to 90 days. The next day they charged my bank account for the chargeback amount, overdrawing my checking account. I called in and they would be holding the funds until the disputed was resolved. 90 days later I contact squares customer support and they tell me they have yet to hear from the customers bank and that I will have to wait an additional 90 days for any further information. I contact square a few weeks later to see if any information had been updated. I became upset and told them that I was extremely displeased with their lack of support during this process. They refused to provide me with any information as far as the customers bank or info about the dispute. After several hours arguing square asked me to call back in 3 weeks and they would release the money to me until the dispute was resolved. They told me that the decision was not final and they could charge theory back from my account anytime, in the event that the customers bank decided against me in the dispute. On July 6th square contacted me through e mail and informed me that the customers bank decided to take the money from us and give it back to the customer. I explained to them that this decision was not correct and that we had provided proof that the charge was authorized and it made no difference. They told me I should contact an attorney if I needed further help. IManaged to close my linked bank account before they could charge back the money from my account. I’m wondering if they will attempt to file a collection for the amount through a creditor once they figure out the account is closed. Do you have any advice on what my next steps should be.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

my experience with square is a nightmare as well I run a small company along with m hair salon and selling hair weaves and products and they are reserving my funds saying the transactions are to close together im getting My lawyers involved

1

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I have used Square for three years now and couldn’t be more satisfied! I have a very busy retail home decor store. Square has helped me grow my business with the afforadable rates, I’ve had great customer service, email and phone. I can call them anytime I need to with an issue. They call me back within a short time and have painstackingly walked me through opening a second business setting up new accounts. Everything has an infancy and needs to get its legs. While it may have been difficult in the beginning, they have been more than accommodating and helped me with inventory capital and equipment. If you are considering a cc processor, this is the one to go with!!

5

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I agree with Lisa. We’re a new business and although I’ve only been using square for a month or so I’ve had no issues at all. They also communicated with me for at least a month before I even bought the stand as I was trying to work through how their product would work in my business. So I’m a new user but so far everything about square has been perfect for us-

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Glad there are some good reviews. I guess it’s only the dissatisfied customers that take the time to write in.

I have used Square for a year running my small coffee shop. I have never had any problems getting the money deposited on time, and the instant deposit function has been a lifesaver for me. I have had a couple of issues getting my debit card accepted on the instant deposit, but it is a Beta function so I understand they will have some bugs. Overall, Square has been great for my business and I wouldn’t go with anyone else.

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I used square for the first time and i submit my first credit card transaction on July 1, 2015 to day is July 9, 2015 i didn’t get my deposit. i have been emailing them everyday and i get no respond from them. i checked with my customer and he told me that the funds was deducted the next day. it is a horrible service and the worst customer service ever. will never use them again.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is… Well, that’s an understatement when dealing with Square. This company has the worst customer service and is very underhanded in how it deals with merchants. They will “approve” you up front, send a reader, then after your first 2 or 3, or even 5 or 10 charges I’ve heard, they will ask for a bunch of personal information, bank statements, etc, then freeze your account for 90 days due to “high risk” activity. This happened to my company a year or so ago, but luckily, the 3 or 4 customers I had just run charges for did a chargeback, so I was able to re-run with my older, more expensive merchant bank. There are 1000’s of horror stories out there, where businesses have had large sums of money held for months or even years. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY IF YOU HAVEN’T DEALT WITH THEM YET!!!! If you are a customer, stop using Square and cancel your bank account they link to immediately. Once you stop doing business, I have heard they will summarily withdraw funds, without informing you before or why they did it after. These people are inept at best and complete criminals at worst…

1

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I was sent an email that my email address was sucessfully changed. I did not change my email address and now any attempt to access my account will not work because square does not accept my email address. I want to cancel the service and cannot even do that.Is there anyway to contact these people.

1

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I can not believe that this company continues to operate and drive consumers out of business with their UNETHICAL business practices. Square froze over $70,000 of transactions on our account for no reason. There we no chargebacks on these funds. They demanded reems of paperwork, copies of bank statements, etc. BUT STILL HELD FUNDS FOR OVER 1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!!! Now they are selling out in an IPO…feel sorry for the investors who get handed this mess to clean up.

1

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Hi.. I am getting extremely aggravated with the incredibly bad service offered by Square. I have tried twice to change my bank account. bot attempts have failed. I have tried twice this being the third time I contact you via this form concerning the failure to update my bank account. both time have been told that the request has been submitted and shall complete shortly… I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CHANGE MY BANK ACCOUNT FOR A OVER MONTH !!!! Now you are sending funds to a closed bank account. what kind of mickey mouse company is square ? I would like for someone to give me a call immediately as I am looking into legal recourse.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We use square in a sit-down Bistro environment, about to add a full bar. Square has been nothing but responsive, we were added to their Beta program after inquiring about much needed features absolutely mandatory for a sit-down situation. Square capital is another amazing feature, they helped and continue to help grow our business.

5

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Hi I’m just trying to figure out if Square will work for my full-service restaurant. My servers need to be able to sign in to the ticket-separately of course-and I need to be able to track their sales so I can cash them out at the end of the shift. We are small-3 servers at a time.

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I’ve heard both success stories and horror stories with Square in a full-service restaurant. But the low price tag may justify the risk, at least for a trial. Otherwise, check out our restaurant POS information. The bottom line is that Square certainly does try to provide all the tools needed to run a small full-service restaurant, and sometimes it works well. But there are some features that just aren’t there. I’d say test it out before committing to a full switch.

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the worst customer service ever there is no way to speak to a human as they dont publish their phone number .our funds are hold for 3 months and we are trying to change the banking information for over a month now . We did it only as the only option available after 20 days it is still showing the old account that . we sent several emails no answer there are several other companies cheaper and more customer friendly as Square does not care about their customer . we all the profit they making on small business owner they can afford to have someone answer the phone . i DO NOT recommend this company to any business owner

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Square is a den of crooks ! If you want to receive your money don’t deal with these crooks! The have 1000 dollars of my money , even after sending all the documents they requested they said they were suspending my account , and it could be 90 days before I receive it , and I’m suppose to believe that after there representative named Jamey assured me if I sent all the info they requested my money would be in my account by 8:00 that night. Thanks Jamey from square , you lier !

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Just like most people have already said, Square is nothing short of a scam, don’t know some people can use it without any incident.

We are an online business for 5.5 yrs and have been using PayPal Express/Standard almost exclusively with no incident. Opened Square to try something different and that was bad news. Opening account and taking credit card was a breeze; Getting the funds you collected to your bank account, well not so much. First they need to verify your bank account, which is fine. After a few days and a couple of transactions later, they send you an email asking about your business documents, invoices, your linkedin profile, how you advertise, external links like yelp, etc, etc. (why don’t you ask all of that before opening the account and let us take credit card payment?) Provided all of that and an hour later got the same automated email saying that they are deactivating my account (which means you will never be able to speak to anyone over the phone) since they found a pattern of high risk transactions (we sell babies’ cloth diapers and have processed TWO transactions using Square), hold my funds for 90 days and that is that. For a small business like us, not having access to our funds for 90 days can literally bankrupt you. I highly doubt that there is a human being actually looking at the individual business to decide whether it is high risk or not (so it does not matter what documents you are submitting). They seem to have a algorithm that does that and it is deeply flawed.

My story is very similar, if not identical to lots of the comments here. What Square is doing is, IMO, criminal and they need to be held accountable. At the same time, my advice is to STAY AWAY from them !!!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’m in the process of opening up a restaurant. Quick service restaurant, and I would say credit card transactions would be around $5-$70 per ticket. in avg. i would be making 1500-$2000 day and half of that would be in credit cards. is square best for my business

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Congrats on the new business.My first comment would be to assume that 75% percent will be will a card of some sort and cash maybe 25%. We have three lunch only establishments that average $1100 per day and average 23% cash.As for Square they have been absolutely great for our business. We have two square stands and a mobile iPad at each location. We get our funds deposited at 4am the next day and have never had a dime held back. Their gift card program works flawlessly and the new open ticket function is a great benefit if you want to ring up calling orders or accept payment upon delivery.Their online market is the only area we wish they would improve upon. It is designed more for retail than food industry.Contact me if you need any additional information.

4

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Poor customer service, they hold funds for 60 or 90 days depending on their mood. No phone number to call, email support only. Have reported them to the BBB. Had my account deactivated by them with no explanation and a total refusal to explain why. Now my money is tied up with these folks. My guess is the use the held funds to deposit in short term investments. Just a guess. Some have suggested they use CD investments. As soon as I finally get my money I will be able to continue doing business. For now I am having to borrow money from my personal finances.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Here is my latest string of emails.These people are truly unbelievable.

I have had enough. There are several items that are pending. I have cancelled them and one will not cancel. It is for $1398.81, which has not been deposited in my bank. The other 2 are for $219.00 and $83.42. I have been charged $25 AND $45 for NSF by Square AND AM NOT AMUSED. This was an issue caused by Square, not my customer or myself. They disputed it, I worked with them and they authorized it. Then I get a notice from Square that it will take 90 days, then a second one saying 60 days and my account is deactivated. Am happy to not give any more business to Square but expect this issue to be resolved. My customers are calling me about double charges by Square and haven’t been paid to my account. I have turned this over to the BBB. After a lot of research it appears that I am not the only one. Please refund any outstanding charges, refund the NSF and straighten out this debacle ASAP.

I recommend anything but square. This is the second time my reader has stopped working. My password does not work, the email reply asked for the street I was raised on but when I enter it in it says invalid. When I call square the recording asked for a code that I’m suppose to get by accessing my account on line!!! So now I can’t access my account online and the tech support won’t accept my phone calls.Square has a lot to learn about customer support.

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Square never told me there was a limit on the dollar amount of deposits. I sold something and ran a guys business card for $9000 and was told 4 days later (after the customer already had the product) that they were refusing to deposit the funds. I was livid. The customers only way of payment was thru his credit card and now I was left with Square denying the payment and knowing the guy had no other means to pay! Shame on Square for putting me in this predicament. They should gather all the information and tell us as their customers that they will randomly hold big amounts of money and not release it. I will NEVER use them again. Can’t risk it!!!!!!!! Go use another company.

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One other issue with Square’s “We won’t tell you where you screwed up” policy is that their legal page is amazingly long and complicated, and leaves several areas either open to interpretation (by Square) or nearly contradictory. For example, you cannot use the service for a variety of products or services that Square does not like, even if they are legal in your area, if they might be illegal at a Federal level (medical marijuana comes to mind.) In addition, for firms where the client deposits fees that are paid to a third party (court fees, government fees, etc.) the firm may be exposed to a setoff or chargeback with very little time to respond. (Cf. “15b. Right of Setoff You grant us a security interest in, …, all of your right, title, and interest in and to all of your accounts with us.” and “27. Your Liability for Chargebacks The amount of a transaction may be reversed or charged back to your Square Account (a “Chargeback”) if the transaction (a) is disputed, (b) is reversed for any reason by the Network, our processor, or a Buyer or our financial institution, (c) was not authorized or we have any reason to believe that the transaction was not authorized, (d) is allegedly unlawful, suspicious, or in violation of the terms of this Agreement.” So to be clear, it might be someone else’s fault, but if you get a chargeback, it is on YOU small business owner, to get that sorted out AND KEEP CASH ON RESERVE to cover Square’s profits, and to do all this within 15 days “30. Contesting Chargebacks […]If a Chargeback dispute is not resolved in your favor …, we may recover the Chargeback amount and any associated fees as described in this Agreement. You acknowledge that your failure to assist us in a timely manner when investigating a transaction, including providing necessary documentation within fifteen (15) days of our request, may result in an irreversible Chargeback. We reserve the right, upon notice to you, to charge a fee for mediating and/or investigating Chargeback disputes.” Yep, they pay themselves first in a chargeback situation, and charge YOU to “mediate” a dispute you never started. Tell me more about Flint Mobile…

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Hi Tom, I am the owner of a small kids yoga business and apparently checking out credit card payment options. I am at the start of my business. Depending on student enrollments, single transaction would be around 100$. I have a Galaxy S4. What system would you recommend? Thank you. Bonnie

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Excellent review. We’re looking closely at square as our POS system for a bike rental business. We’re trying to figure out if a customer rents a bike with a required deposit of say 200 can we swipe the card without charging the customer at that time and then “refund” their deposit when they come back and charge them only for time used for the rental? Does square have a facility where there is a time out and time in? We know it’s not a reservation system but we can’t seem to get an answer to this question.

Thanks

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Okay I run a small business and I have agents that use my account because I sell credit terminals and Generators. My bank got verified and my have 480 dollar in funds it keep saying pending deposits. I can’t even take any more payments because they turn off using the card transaction. All I made was one transaction. When should I get my deposit if I did my transaction before being verified I did the transaction on a thursday.

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We have a small service type business and we want to start accepting credit cards. A single transaction amount could range from a few hundred to few thousand dollars depending on job size. We use Quick Book accounting software (desk top version) and Android mobile devices. We were considering Square or Intuit GoPayment, but after reading your article, are curious about Flint Mobile. Any recommendations or other factors we need to consider.

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Thanks for this review. We just started using square for our PTO online store. Right now we are selling plants for a fundraiser, next we are adding tickets and wristbands for a school carnival. Starting in the fall we would like to be able to sell our school shirts/sweatshirts, a few other fundraisers, and also collect general donations.

So far no issues, but again we just started. My question is – was square the right choice or would there be a better option that allows for items for sale as well as donations? Thank you!

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It sounds like your volume and average sale size are low enough that you won’t have a substantial amount of risk when using Square. If you like their online selling tools, and have used them thus far without any issues, I’d say you’re safe to stick with them. The donation part is tricky, because Square does not allow the customer/donor to input the donation amount. So you would have to preset certain donation amounts that could be “purchased” like a product. Flint has similar online sales features, and could save you on debit transactions, but they don’t offer custom input payment buttons either.

If you want the user to be able to submit a custom amount for donation, I’d recommend PayPal. You don’t have to convert your whole online store to PayPal, just add a “donate” button via the PayPal account. Another benefit to this is that donors can set up monthly recurring donations, which are the best kind!

Hope this helps, Tom

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We are a farm and have a large pick-your-own operation. We were using old sharp registers and a store-and-forward CC machine. Last season we tried Square with a 4G hotspot and really liked it. We loved the offline mode since the 4G wasn’t perfect. Not having offline capability is almost a deal breaker.

We read all the horror stories about funding holds and account freezes, but never had an issue and the support was amazing. We could get someone on the phone within an hour or less. I’m wondering if a lot of these stories are actually merchants not running a business properly and not Square’s fault either that or Square’s account stability has improved drastically. If account stability is no longer an issue how long until they are given an all clear? Any company can make mistakes and experience growing pains in the past – what is currently happening in the present should be what matters most from a review prospective.

One question I have with Square is that if our sales are too high for CC companies to not require a merchant account… we do about 1,200,000 in sales and over 100,000 with Visa. Would Visa require us to have a merchant account once we pass 100,000?

Square is PERFECT for us since we are high volume with average ticket being only $12. If it works for WholeFoods and Starbucks I don’t see why we couldn’t use it if their sales are obviously way way higher. I did talk to Square about setting up a higher level account (for direct customer service / stability) and they said they do if your sales are over a certain amount.

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At a certain volume, you will be asked to agree to a commercial entity agreement, which is a direct agreement with the processor. This may help in terms of adding stability. I haven’t seen any recent case studies done in regard to higher volume Square users, but my guess is that Square wants to keep it’s high-volume user active and happy. Since your average ticket is small and your goods are not prone to chargebacks and you have an established business with a processing record (and you’ve already tried the service without issue – most issues happen early on), I think Square is a good option for you.

A sizable percentage of Square complaints definitely come from new businesses who have no processing history, especially those with large transaction sizes. These merchants pose the highest risk, so they are more likely to have issues.

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Thanks for the advice Tom. MM and these reviews have been a godsend as we go about evaluating POS options.

I’m still a little confused on how Square’s algos target some accounts and not others (assuming its computerized). We are thinking of moving over other businesses to Square, but these have much larger transaction size.

– Is there a way for Square to know our previous processing history and that we are an established business? We never provided a EIN # or any history.

– Could the account freezes people are complaining about be warranted in that a new business (or anyone with a SSN #) without experience could easily mischarge a customer resulting in charge backs?

Since Square has been so good for us thus far I’m wondering how the experience can differ so much from user to user. We almost didn’t go with Square because of these claims, but if they are warranted then it would be too bad that Square is getting a bad reputation if that makes sense.

Thanks again for your help!

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Glad to help. You are touching on a limitation of many reported complaints. Many complaints are quite vague, so we are left guessing about what percentage of account freezes have to do with chargeback ratio, broken card association rules, misstated business info during application, mishandled transactions (such as split charges), actual fraud, and other such preventable issues. We also don’t know the final outcomes of many complaints because the complainants often don’t follow up with us. But the bottom line is that all processors, third-party or otherwise, take steps to mitigate risk in response to the perceived level of risk.

The problem with Square – or at least what has historically been a problem – is that they do not do an intensive underwriting when the account is opened. Traditional merchant account providers will take a careful look at your business, your history, your current practices, your website, credit, financial statements, etc. Square only does a very basic underwriting when you sign up (because the process is expensive, and they have so many new customers signing up all the time). Then later on, after they can see your processing habits, they usually begin to look at little closer at your business because now it becomes worthwhile for them to do so. By this time, many merchants have a bunch of money tied up with Square, which is what creates so many problems. They think everything is fine, but in reality they were just in a sort of “pre-approval” stage. Square simply does not develop the kind of relationship with its customers that (good) traditional merchant account providers do.

The worst part is that they don’t have a way for you to request an account review earlier on. This is one reason I recommend Flint for many businesses. At least Flint has a protocol that allows/encourages you to submit the extra paperwork needed to make your account more stable from the get-go. (Flint doesn’t have an offline mode, so not an option for you.)

So the best way to add stability to your Square account is simply to use it for a good stretch of time, say six months to a year at least. If nothing goes wrong during that time, the chance of a major issue down the line decreases.

For larger tickets you should also consider that Square will likely be more expensive than alternatives, about 1%+ more expensive in most cases, which really adds up.

But all said and done Square’s software is great, and for many merchants, especially those with small tickets, it works out really well. We’ve been hearing less complaints about Square lately across the board, so I’m hopeful. But for the “average” user, there are often other options I feel more comfortable referring business to.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted with your experience!

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what would you suggest Tom, if I am taking small amounts $4-$30 dollar transactions and about 40-80 transactions a day? maybe half of them being credit transaction the other half cash. my inventory is just one thing. what would you recommend for a pos or credit possessing system?

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I am an author who would like to be able to offer credit card processing when I’m at book fairs and presentations. Book sales are sporadic and low volume at best. I received information in the mail for the FREE Square Reader but after reading your article, I’m not sure Square is the right company for me. Do you think I should proceed with Square or try one of the other companies?

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I honestly think Flint is a better option for you. You won’t need most of the features that Square’s software includes (many features are geared toward high-volume, low-ticket businesses like cafés), and I have found Flint to be more reliable overall. You can sign up with Flint for free to test the app with no commitment. They offer some nice invoicing and online selling tools too. I’ve also found Flint’s camera scan system to have fewer misfires than Square’s card reader.

Hope this helps. Good luck. -Tom

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Appalling business practices!!! They have wasted hours of my time, holding ransom a $5299.00 purchase from one of my best customers! Asking for three MONTHS of my PRIVATE BANK STATEMENTS! I am sooooo angry, call “Customer Support”??? You’ll get a recording that sends you in search of a non-existant “Customer Code” (You can’t get the code without 3 months bank statements and finishing the verification process (invasive!)I am HOPING they process my payment from my customer, I can’t imagine they would have the audacity to hold my funds for 90 days! Unbelievable bad bad customer service, criminal operating system. They should be turned in to the FCC!!!

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I have used square register for a long time at least two years. They have been OK up until last week when I had to process three invoices totaling close to 1000.00 then all the sudden I am told I have to do extraordinary measures to get my money. I did comply then tried to get on the phone with a live person. Now I have to get a customer coupon code to be able to call them, really? All I can do is send an email which they won’t reply to I really needed that money and have already been waiting 45 days before I could process the customers card now square wants to hold my money? I would think twice about using their services there are cheaper companies out there.

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My wife and I started a small business which helps treat pain in the body. Customers pay a flat rate of $200 for the service. It is a by appointment only service and typically we see 10-20 customers per day, 4 days a week. We have been doing cash or check only but would like to offer credit/debit cards as a form of payment. Which processor would you suggest? Thanks.

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To some extent it depends on what percentage of those customers you anticipate will be paying with cards instead of cash/check. It you’re looking at over $10K monthly in cards (it sounds like you are), I’d say you should look beyond Square and the other mobile processors. Take a look at PayJunction. You might find that their other features are useful to you as well.

Good luck, Tom

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Thanks for your advice. As of right now the majority of our customers likely still pay cash or check, so the likelihood of going over or even coming close to $10,000 is small. We would like to be able to just swipe the card, get a signature and give them a receipt. This being the case which system would you recommend?

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1. Flint: Great for lower volumes, reliable, no extra hardware needed (just smartphone or tablet). Downside, it does not connect to a thermal printer. To print receipts, you’d have to do it through a normal office printer, and you have to initiate it from Flint’s online customer portal. Of course emailed receipts can be used instead, which are sent directly from the app. No monthly fee.

2. Helcim: Good merchant account provider for small businesses. Great prices, very stable. You could save about 1% compared to a mobile processor. Downside: you’ll have to buy the hardware, which would be about $200 (the receipt printer is built-in). It’s a solid investment, and very reasonably priced compared to others. Monthly fee is $12.

3. Spark Pay: This is Capital One’s mobile processing service. They have affordable options and do support receipt printing. But you would have to buy the printer, and it could end up costing almost as much as the machine through Helcim. They have two monthly fee options, one of which is free.

Good luck!

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We are a small Florida town holistic office with an acupuncturist, chiropractor and massage therapist and also sell supplements. Business fluctuates mostly seasonally. I found the square to be great until I read that they can hold earnings indefinitely and without warning. I guess I’m a sceptic and I have to ask if you have a conflict of interest. I have the idea you have a preference for Flint. Thank you. Now I have to check out flint.

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I think Flint and Square serve two very different purposes. In terms of how they handle accounts and transactions, and the features they offer, these companies have as many differences as similarities.

The fact is that any payment processor can end up withholding your funds if they perceive a risk of fraud (Flint included), and that is totally at their discretion. No one can hold the funds indefinitely, though, not even Square. They can only hold the funds as long as the risk of loss remains, which in most cases tops out at 180 days, often much sooner.

Flint accounts tend to be more stable, and since there is no added hardware there is less chance of malfunction. Flint doesn’t have all of the point-of-sale features that Square has, but what they do have tends to work very well the vast majority of the time.

Because of this, I usually tell people who don’t need all of the bells and whistles that Square offers to check out Flint instead. But for some businesses, Square is absolutely a better option. It comes down to your needs, budget, and the amount of risk you can handle.

If you are interested to learn more about how we remain unbiased in our reviews, check out this page.

Thanks for reading, Tom

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Hi, I just read your article about Square augment system. I was looking to see there was any down side.

I guess I am a sceptic and I have ask if you have any conflicts of interests but at the same rate assess briefly if a holistic business in a tourist area, which has fluctuating business income with 4 practitoners; acupuncture, chyropractic, homeopathy and massage.

I appreciate your and await your reply

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This review has been very helpful, and I appreciate your honesty. My question is, if I am only going to be processing payments 1 or 2 days a month and I only bring in $300- $700 a month, would Square be my best option? Would you suggest another route for me? Thank so much in advance!

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I actually think that Flint would be a better option for you. Square works well for fast-paced businesses that have a lot of small transactions and a lot of inventory items. But for a small number of larger transactions, I’ve found Flint more reliable.

Good luck! Tom

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Thank you so much for writing this. I am an author who is starting to take her book “on the road” so need something for credit card sales. I have the square reader but haven’t installed the app yet. I don’t expect to have large volume but do want to be able to offer credit card as an option to cash. Your article makes me feel much more comfortable with the process. I am concerned because I do not have a plan for my iPad so will have to depend on WiFi which might cause other problems. Always something, eh. Thanks again for your clarity and staightforwardness.

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A nice thing about Square is that they have an offline mode, so even if you don’t have an internet connection you can still accept card payments. The payments won’t be authorized until you get to an internet connection, so there is a chance that a transaction could fail. But it’s better than nothing.

Glad to help and good luck! -Tom

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I too am a writer, and have been using Square for over a year with occasional sales of books at fairs, etc. The only problem I had was a problem with the reader, which Square replaced at no cost – everything works fine now, my funds transfer within a day or two.

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Have been using Square since we opened one year ago. Have not experienced any problems with holds or other processing issues. With an average guest check of $10 the fees work out great. We utilize two stands and a hand held iPad for overflow. We also utilize the new open tickets beta for phone call ahead orders and it works great as well. So far so good. Our issue is with the online market. We get a lot of feedback that certain browsers at corporate businesses can not access it or when they do some of the functions don’t work. Also Square only offers Pickup or Shipping and not a local same day delivery. So we try to tell people that even though it says pickup only if you need delivery put your address in the comments when checking out but this gets confusing to many. If we activate shipping the shortest shipping is 1 day and it emails us the order on a delay and doesn’t send to our register. So the question is there a better solution for this online pickup AND delivery order option that ties directly to the POS while still keeping low fees? This is an issue as it accounts for 20% of our orders and growing.

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Square waits to make sure that the ACH payment from your bank account goes through without an NSF before authorizing the payment to the customer. This is assuming that you don’t have anything in your Square balance, because that will be used first. This process takes time, which is why it can take up to 7 days to process the refund, and up to 14 days for the customer to be paid back. They don’t want to have to take you to collections to get their money.

Here’s a quote directly from Square:

When you issue a refund, Square first looks to your Square balance to cover the refund amount. If there are insufficient funds within your balance, Square withdraws the amount that you were paid (the sale amount minus the initial payment fee) from your bank account and then credits it back to your customer’s card.

For example, if the amount of the original transaction was $25, then $24.31 is withdrawn from your bank account and the full $25.00 is refunded to your customer’s card. The fees ($0.69 in this case) are covered by Square, and the full purchase amount is always returned to your customer.

While uncommon, you may need to wait 24 hours after a payment is completed to process a refund on an Android device.

When you issue a refund, we temporarily hold the amount of that refund in your Square balance. It typically takes Square two business days to process a refund, but can take up to seven business days. Once that process is complete, the refund is applied to your customer’s bank account within seven business days. In total, your customer should see the funds in their account within 9-14 business days.

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Thank you! Your post was very helpful. I operate a small catering company. I have been processing all of my credit card transactions through Sams Club Merchant Credit Card Processing/First Data. However, I am fed up with all of the interchange fees! Some months my interchange fees are 3x the amount of my regular processing fees. When I process clients credit cards; I never know what fees to expect the following month because they could be using a reward credit card, corporate card, government credit card, etc.

Therefore, I am considering square. My biggest downfall with square is the majority of my credit card transactions are keyed-in/manually entered. I process deposits and payments from clients usually over the phone. Square charges charges 3.5% + $.15 per transaction on manually entered transactions. I also was considering Merchant One. But after reading your review and others about Merchant One I reconsidered.

Is there a credit card processing company you could recommend that would have no interchange fees, low or no monthly fees and reasonable transactions fees for manually entered transactions? I have no use for all of the perks the square system offers on the ipad. I just need to process my credit card payments at a fair rate.

Thank you for your help

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For manually-entered payments, I don’t recommend any of the mobile-based processors. You will be better off with a browser-based virtual terminal that you can use from your computer or smartphone internet browser.

Consider CDGcommerce. The monthly fee is only $10, and the processing fees are low. Payline Data has a plan with only $5 per month, although the processing fees are slightly higher (still way lower than Square, though).

You won’t need any equipment. The processing can be done from any device with a web browser.

Good luck! Tom

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I am finding your reviews very helpful, thanks. Two questions, which apply to Square but also are general with regard to your knowledge of mobile card processing services: First, I was surprised by how much sensitive info Square collects in the sign-up process. Do you happen to know how secure the info is and whether Square releases any of it to 3rd parties (I get way too much junk email already!). Second, Square seems to allow vendors to make transactions off-line. This would be very useful to me, as my iPad is not connected to mobile server account. Do you know if any of your other top services (Flint, Here, etc.) have this capability? Thank you.

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Glad to help. I’m confident in Square’s ability to keep sensitive information secure, and haven’t seen any evidence that they sell lead information.

Unfortunately none of the other providers in the mobile-only category can do offline transactions. But if you opt for a merchant account with a company like Payline Data, I believe that the mobile processing app they use can do this kind of transaction. I actually think the same can be said for CDGcommerce as well, but Payline has a better low-volume plan.

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Well I had someone hacked into my Square account today. Charged $5000 into my account. Changed my log in credentials so that they can access my account and effectively locked me out from changing anything. Tried reaching out to customer service for help. Call 855-700-6000 only to find out I needed a customer code. How do I get a customer code? Well, I have to log into my Square account in order to obtain that. Since I couldn’t log in, I emailed security@squareup.com. The hacker now has sinced changed the email address to my account twice and back to my original email, but still cannot log in and Square has yet to respond back to any of my numerous email requests in the last hour. I’m going to deactivate my account and never USE them again!

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Hi, I came up on this website after searching for “like issues” I was having with my square market store. Anytime someone goes to my online market to buy products, it will keep reloading the main page. My customers are frustrated and obviously it’s not easy to order which drops my sales. Also when I am running a promotion, no one can ever find the “promo code” box! Anyone experience this?

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Thank you so much for this article! I was wondering what your recommendation world be for an organization that collects dues and monies for memorabilia and charity events would be? The members would like to have an online payment option, and I could not find a way for square to link to our webpage for payment. Is the only option PayPal? Thanks!

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Square does have an online selling option, but for your purposes I would actually recommend Flint. You can add customized payment buttons, and users will not even have to leave your site to pay. You can also use payment pages hosted by Flint if you prefer. I think that you’ll find their online tools better suited to your needs than Square’s, plus you’ll likely end up saving money overall. Check them out.

Good luck, Tom

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I am dealing with an issue where the business that processes my rent payment uses Square, they processed a transaction for my March rent on my debit card. They got a denied response so they tried again and recieved the same response. However, there were more than enough funds in my account and my bank showed a pending transaction for the charge. The next day the payment processed through my bank as complete.

This was on March 3rd, and as of today the 14th my landlord claims they still have received no funds from Square for the transaction and are now threatening eviction! I am disputing it with my bank but since there are similar tranactions from other months they are claiming that it is an error with Square. Any suggestions from anyone on help with resolving this? I have gotten nowhere with Square because I am not the owner of the Square account, and the landlord isn’t helping, they just want me to pay again.

Frustrated and Helpless!

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You should tell your landlord that Square is NOT an appropriate means of collecting rent money. It is way more expensive than alternatives, and way less reliable.

For instance, if you paid $600 in rent via Square on a debit card, your landlord loses $16.50 in fees. If they processed the transaction directly from your checking account via a service like Dwolla, the fee would only be $0.25! That’s about $200 annually that they are overpaying just to collect $600 monthly. The more they accept, the more they overpay. At $1200 monthly is would be an overpayment of nearly $400 annually for your landlord.

Beyond this oversight, your landlord should consider that Square will sometimes withhold a transaction because they perceive a risk of fraud. There is nothing that you can do to prevent this. I don’t know if that’s what happened here, but it’s a possibility.

You should show the landlord that the transaction has posted as complete and the money has been taken from your account. You may need to call your bank to see what they can do to prove that the transaction has occurred. Then you should encourage the landlord to contact Square to see if something went wrong on their end, and to check their transaction history. And then, if you want to be nice, you should suggest that they begin to process rent either as direct bank account transfers (which are often free, you just need to provide your acct and routing numbers), or via a service like Dwolla that only charges $0.25 per transaction and will NEVER hold a transaction. Otherwise you should insist on writing a check.

Hope this works out for you. I have never heard of a landlord using Square. It’s just not a good idea.

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The main problem as we see it is the inability to deal with open tickets, which renders Square useless in a sit down restaurant, casual or not. It works for our over the counter Juice sales, we would love to use the online order feature; but the missing open ticket is an absolute show stopper. Unfortunately. So now we are looking at Touch Bistro, while hoping daily to see a feature upgrade from Square.

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We are opening a small breakfast/lunch restaurant. We will have an average cover of about $12 with the total of daily charges in the $1,500 range. Anyway, we have been looking at both Square & Shopkeep. What we like about Square in addition to the ease of use is the low cost and the fixed 2.75% swipe fee.

I know this might seem a little high but in reality by the time you deal with all the invisible fees of standard processors, maybe not. Also by the time you factor in the low equipment cost and lack of monthly fees it actually seems like a good deal

Thoughts?

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Sorry for the delay. This is actually a really common comparison point to end up at, and it can be a seriously tough call.

Square gives a lot considering there is no monthly fee for either the POS or the processing service (unless you purchase add-ons or integrations). The processing rate of 2.75% is high, especially for debit transactions, but small transactions are actually very inexpensive to process with Square since no per-transaction fee (authorization fee) is charged (often $0.20 per transaction with other processors, which is an added 1% on a $20 transaction).

On the other hand, ShopKeep‘s feature list goes well beyond what Square offers, and they allow you to choose your payment processor. They also allow you to change POS or change the processor independently. With Square, it’s an all or nothing situation. Perhaps the most substantial benefit with ShopKeep, beyond the features, is the potential for better account stability. Since you get to choose your own payment processor, you are less likely to experience funding holds or account terminations.

So it really comes down to three things. First, will you benefit from the added features supported via ShopKeep? If not, consider Square. Second, can you afford to pay a little bit extra for ShopKeep fees and potentially more for processing fees? If not, point for Square. And lastly, are you able to risk your funds being withheld with Square? If not, seriously consider ShopKeep. While chances are that you won’t have any issues if you go with Square, it’s important to be prepared for the possibility since the probability of an occurance is greater when you use Square.

It’s not an easy choice. The good news is that – as long as you don’t use the Square Stand – the hardware is basically the same for these two providers. So if you start out with Square and then decide to switch, it should be easy.

Good luck!

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Yep! Square loses money on many transaction scenarios, including about 100% of American Express transactions, since retail AMEX transactions are 2.89% + $0.10. Small transactions are particularly troublesome, since no per-transaction/authorization fees are charged for card-present with Square. Square’s overall profitability is a popular area of speculation.

Regulated debit transactions are 0.05% + $0.21. So on a $10 debit transaction Square charges $0.27 and the actual cost is about $0.21. The merchant still ends up saving money with Square in this scenario because of markup, but Square barely breaks even (before operating costs).

But of course on a $100 regulated debit transaction Square makes $2.75 and only pays $0.46. Square makes their money back on larger transactions. Merchants with an average ticket under $20 are likely to pay less with Square than with a traditional processor, all said and done. They give up a certain amount of flexibility and stability, but for low-volume merchants faced with paying $50+ just for POS software elsewhere, Square is hard to pass up.

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Tom Thank you for replying. Please do not forget the .01 fraud charge for a total of .22 cents and .0005 The Startbucks – Square deal has cost Square millions. Please see link or google “square and starbucks deal 25 million loss” or “starbucks ceo resigns from square board”

If we just looked at the money Square pays in interchange/assessment versus the money they bring in from processing fees, I’m sure that they come out in the green. This is due to the fact that “most” transactions are profitable for Square. The question is, how much in the green are they based solely on the processing fees? And how much does it cost to run a business like Square aside from this cost? I really have no idea what kind of numbers they’re dealing with in these regards. But I think just about everyone agrees that Square is currently operating at a loss. There are a lot of investment dollars to go through, and that is largely keeping them afloat I’d guess. But the income they earn through the profitable transactions is pretty substantial regardless. It’s the same way that Braintree can afford to give away your first $50K in processing. Yes, they take a loss on it. But the hope is that in the long run they make a profit.

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The company I work for is looking into cheaper options for processing. We travel throughout the midwest and sell clothing at multiple events per weekend. Up to four separate locations, however we would be based all from one main location. Could we have multiple squares running at once? Is the tax withholding service adjustable so we can tune it to separate states tax laws for selling. I’ve noticed you said a few things about security. Some of our events sell about $2,000 total for three days. However, other events will sell up to $25,000 in three days. I was hoping maybe you could suggest a cheap option for us if square can’t fill our needs. Since our sales occur at odd location we really need the offline option. The system we have now is large and outdated so we are in desperate need of a new system that can keep our inventory updated regularly and handle our sales capacity. Sales are seasonal as well so we don’t need a year round service but could do leasing based monthly.

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The trickiest part of the situation you’re describing is the need for offline processing. Browser-based virtual terminals will required wifi or data, as will most mobile processing apps. Aside from Square, the only app I know of that can do this is the M+ Terminal from goEmerchant. (Maybe worth checking out.)

Aside from that, you can write down the payment details and key them in later when you have service. Or you can call in the payment details (assuming phone access but no data access) to someone else who can process the payment from a virtual terminal or the payment app.

So, with all of that said, you should check out CDGcommerce and Payline Data. Both will serve your needs (aside from the offline mode) and have low monthly fees ($5 to $10 monthly, and you can schedule seasonal downtime so you only pay for the months you need it). Both will also be more reliable than Square in terms of having access to your funds.

Hope this helps!

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I have a square that I use one day a week for small transactions. I am currently using it om my husband’s iphone because I don’t have a smart phone, but I am having problems with the app. I was able to contact customer service and they recommended uninstalling the app and reinstalling. This fixed the problem for a couple of weeks and now I am having the same problem again. I am thinking about getting a pay-per-use smart phone with a data only plan to use just for the square. Do you recommend a specific model or know of any models that don’t work with the square?

Thanks so much.

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I simply love this company and the service. Once I had a charge disputed by a customer and Square was on my side all the way and I ultimately won the case. Unlike PayPal that instantly refunds money without giving the merchant any say-so in the matter.

5

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Hi Tom, I am a flooring contractor planning on taking credit cards. My transactions will vary from as low as $1500.00 or as high as $15.000. I am not expecting a lot of transactions, so it will not be used consistently. Do you have any suggestions on any other products or would Square be a good option for me? I got a little concerned about the holds on accounts as I am a small business. This is a great article. Very informative. Thanks. Fabio

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We have 3 separate business locations and will start using the square stand/register on 3 different IPads soon. The payments will be going to one bank account. Will we be able set up 3 different locations and process payments without any problems?

Thanks

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Square does have this capability. (Read more here.) I haven’t heard from any merchants who have used this feature, so I’m not 100% sure how it works in terms of inventory management and general reporting for multiple locations. You will want to take a look at this to see if it suits your needs (depending on your business type). Otherwise, you may want to consider other iPad POS options.

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I’m in a similar situation where I’m looking to start a multi store retail company. I love the POS and reporting side of Square (credit card won’t be used so no real problems there).

But the real problem is one that I can’t believe doesn’t get talked about much – you can not have multiple locations setup on the one account! Multi store companies must setup different accounts for each site (there’s actually 3 workarounds according to Square support but this is the best).

This HAS to be a feature coming. I just can’t believe it’s not already included and that more people aren’t requesting it. Does this mean that everyone using Square only has 1 store?!

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It’s crazy, I know! But Square is banking on the very small business crowd, and most of these businesses only have one location. Here’s a link to Square’s info about multi-account functions. It’s nothing you haven’t already encountered, but I’ll post it here for anyone else interested.

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The Square has been a very seamless way for us to take credit cards in our small art gallery. However, here is a tip that has really helped us use it. Often it takes a number of swipes to take the card. This tip we learned just yesterday: Pinch the reader while you swipe. I use my thumb and fore finger on my left hand, (being a right-hander by demand of my teachers) and hold the device on my lower rib cage. By pinching the reader, the card seems to have better contact, and READS THE FIRST TIME IT IS SWIPED. Try it.

5

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Question: Our salon acts as an umbrella for our self-employed stylists. With the Square Register POS system, are we able to take payments for our staff using one iPad POS? Or do they all need individual readers separate from the salon’s POS?

Thank you, Leslie

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If each stylist’s sales need to go to individual accounts, it can all be handled on one machine but each stylist will need to log in to their own account before the sale (and log out afterward, to avoid errors). No aggregate information will be collected; the separate accounts (including things like inventory and reports) will exist completely independently.

If all sales will go into single account, then you can just use the employee feature to track individual stylists. In this case, you will have access to all of the sales data and things like inventory and reporting will be shared.

If some stylists would prefer to use their own smartphones for processing payments, they can get their own readers for free whether you share the account or each has his/her own account.

Hope this helps, Tom

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Hi, Tom … our family has a seasonal income tax service. This year we have had several requests from our clients to pay with debit or credit cards. Since we don’t expect a large number or cards to be accepted, we are considering using Square for the simplicity. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank You

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My first recommendation for businesses like your is to try Flint Mobile. They are much more reliable and in many cases significantly less expensive than Square. If you try Flint and feel like you need more features, then you should consider other options in the mobile processing category. Square has a ton of great features, but it’s a less reliable option.

Hope this helps! -Tom

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Tom, I have a small seasonal mobile rental business ave sale $70. Sales take place in several areas that have no cell service. On my prior card reader service, I had the option of running cards “offline” and then once in service range, “batching” the sales (which also helped for per transaction costs). Does the square have that option?

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I am starting a small online shoe business and I am trying to find the best route to take in finding a merchant to process credit card payments as most people use credit cards when buying online. I was told about paypal and now square up. Could you tell me what you would recommend?

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To some extent it will depend on your volume and your needs (whether you plan to use a shopping cart, payment buttons, payment pages, etc., and how your website will be set up). CDGcommerce is a good place to start. Also check out Payment Depot.

If you’d like some more help choosing, submit this form and we’ll get back to you ASAP!

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Hello Tom, I am a Tour Operator and have been since 1992. I am a home-based sole proprietor business and have been since 1992. I sell packaged tours to my customers. I also plan and sell group cruises, and fly-in packaged tours to my customers. A package tour usually consists of around 30 – 50 persons. I am tired of all the fees charged to me by my current credit card processor and of course the PCI Validation. I usually take a $100 deposit per person and the balance is due 45 days prior to the departure date of the tour. My normal transactions after the initial deposit ranges from $1200 up to $3000 per person. A married couple transaction would be $2400 up to $6000 for a couple. When my payment in full date arrives, I could have several transactions in a single day totaling as much as $40,000. Is this type business and type transactions permitted with Square or am I taking a chance getting funds put on hold or my account deactiviated? Foy

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Someone recently tried to order one of my products online using a stolen credit card. The payment was not accepted, the funds were returned and Square still felt the need to review my business. So I provided all of the information they requested, I told them to feel free to request more information, and within hours, square deactivated my account, permanently and irreversibly.

The email from square said they found a pattern of high risk activity. That “patern” was one transaction, which got reversed anyway. After using them for a year they just threw me in the trash and left me without a card processing solution.

1

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Hi Tom, Great review I just happen to fall on searching information on Square. We would probably need some customization and from your review regarding support I’m not sure if Square is a good fit. I’ll try to explain our scenario and maybe you can guide me in a product that could help us. We are selling an online/subscription service. Our sales reps goes to business meeting and after their presentation they need to collect customer’s information to create their account, along with payment. Since it is a subscription based product, does Square offer the possibility of vaulting the credit card info for re-occurring future payments? Will it provide a vaulted ID for our sales reps to associate with the account information they have collected? After the meetings, sales reps brings in the account information for our customer service reps to create the account in the system. Our current issue is that all solutions we have looked at, there is no way to associate the payment information with the specific account once created. Any advice?

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Unfortunately Square does not offer recurring payment solutions. What you need is a provider offering a payment gateway that features a web-based virtual terminal and recurring payment/card vault functionality. This will allow your reps to enter the card info directly into the virtual terminal via a smartphone or laptop in the field. Any of our featured providers will be able to accommodate this. Each recurring entry is given a unique ID (not just for the transaction, remains consistent for each recurring cycle).

Tom….we are a small non-profit that supports high school sports. We are very interested in using the Square for Point of Sale at our fundraisers. Our transactions would range from $15-$150 and would be sporadic. Most of them would appear as batches if you will….say 75 of them within a few hours at an event and then would sit quiet for weeks. My biggest concern is the holding of monies I am reading about and being shut down for being small.

What are your thoughts? I could really use your input! KP

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In my experience, your best bet in mobile processing to decrease the likelihood of holds is to use Flint Mobile. They don’t have all the features that Square offers, but they are more reliable. I can also tell you that Square has improved its system lately so I’m seeing fewer instances of funding holds, but it’s always a possibility. So if you don’t need all of the features offered by Square, I’d say go with Flint instead. You may also consider Spark Pay or PayPal Here.

Good luck, Tom

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Thanks for the article. I ran across it while trying to verify info from a merchant services rep. He came in hawking his product and informed me that all the customer’s credit card info is stored in the phone or pad used with the Square swiper. Have you heard this or do you know it to be true. I cannot find any info from other sources. Thanks!Our experience with the Square system has been problem free so far.

4

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That is 100% not accurate. No credit card information is stored in the device. The info is encrypted (ie, turned into a basically indecipherable coded format) by the reader and sent to Square for processing. In the Square reporting system they do allow you to track new versus returning customers by way of the card they used, but all of this data is handled and encrypted by Square. You don’t store or have access to credit card info when you use Square.

Hope this helps! -Tom

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Hello Tom, wondering if you can point me in the right direction as I start my search. We’re a event business that does 99% sign ups via the web, so we have a merchant account. At the event however we do retail sales of souvenir and what not. I’m looking for a solid app along with ipad hardware to create a mobile POS. We currently have two aging wireless credit card machines and it would be great stay high tech. Looking for any alternative solutions using authorize.net. Or have you seen anyone use the square-register hardware with a different app?

4

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Your first option is to use a service like Flint Mobile, PayPal Here, or Square. These will operate outside of your merchant account, since the POS apps are bundled with the payment processing service.

Your other option is to use an iPad POS app that will integrate with your gateway/merchant account. Have you spoken with your merchant account provider to see if they have a recommended mobile solution? This might be a good place to start if you go this route. You should also consider that Authorize.Net actually offers a free mobile app, mPOS. I haven’t tested it, but it seems solid enough. You have to buy the card reader, but it’s only about $10.

If you need more features than Flint has, Square is very feature-rich. You might also consider something like Vend.

The Square app/hardware/processing system are bundled and cannot be used with any other systems.

Good luck! -Tom

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Well written article. I only found it because I was looking into other’s experience with squareup.com customer service. In few years or more I’ve been using them it’s been easy. I had a question and decided to call.

I was already logged in to my account and their phone system always asks for one’s customer number, which is provided in my account online.

My exact experience was: calling, entering my customer number and being told by the automated system it was not a valid number. I tried this three times and it failed all three calls, thus following their required method for speaking with a person is a complete joke!

Richard

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Thanks for reading! Square is trying to improve their support, but there have been issues. Did you you get your unique 12-digit “Customer Code” aka Customer Support Code via the Support page? For each issue you have, you must generate a new support code in order to use phone support. If so, it’s possible that your code expired or timed-out. While I can’t say the system is perfect, I have been able to use the phone support before. So I’m hoping this is an isolated issue. Please come back and let us know if you make any progress with this.

Best, Tom

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Dear Tom,My email has been comprised by 4 receipts for 4 people unknown to me, from a company unknown to me……I have never heard of this company…..How did they get my email and am sending these 4, so far, receipts to me…..one for $347.00.I tried to call Squareup.com but need a code which I don’t want to get and I didn’t want to send them my email….but am sending it to you since you have a way of helping others with this company….Any advice would be appreciated on how to get them off my back.I have placed a call to the FTC and will be calling BBB next. Thank you, Ann

1

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That is exceptionally strange. Square is a credit card processor used by many different businesses. When a customer checks out at a business using Square for credit card processing (this may be in-person or online), they are prompted to supply an email address to receive a digital receipt. This receipt should indicate the business name and the purchase information. Is it possible that some family member or friend is giving out your email address when they shop? That would be the most logical explanation to my mind. Are the orders coming from businesses close to you? If so, it could be evidence that this is the case.

If that’s not the case, then I’m as confused as you are. There is no good reason for someone to be using your email address, unless by accident. If this was a case of fraud, most likely a dummy email account would be used. All the same, please do check your credit cards to make sure no fraudulent transactions have occurred.

Let me know if you figure this out or if you’d like more information.

Good luck, Tom

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Hi Tom, Thanks for the quick response……I have no idea who they are, here are there names: 1. Bruna Ferrari Beads Inc. = $40.00 with a signature swiped by (RED)? 1/23/15 2. Baorong Huang = $54.00 by a Visa 1/23/15 3. William A. Boss = $123.00 by a Visa 1/23/15 4. jura cilks = $347.25 pd by ? (no mention of how this was paid)

It’s just so strange…..apparently they are from the LA area. Thanks again for any help….. Ann

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Do you know anyone who went to the California Gift Show? It seems like these may be vendors from that event.

Based on what I can see, it’s most likely a case of someone using your email address. Maybe someone you know. Who knows, maybe they were shopping for you and didn’t understand that the receipt would be sent to you!

-Tom

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I appreciate your quick and caring response, but I do not know any of the 4 people or businesses……and do not have ANY connection to any of them or their businesses… I did call the only one with a phone number and she has no idea either, but did say the manager was at a gift show…..I never had even a small business! I’m just a retired person. Thanks for your time……I will contact the manager of the business in LA with the ‘Beads’. Ann

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Hi Tom,Well I have finally figured it out……with the help of one of the customers bookkeepers.There was not 4 different people, but only 1 person shopping at this event. The 1 person stopped at 4 different venues and purchased something at each one, using the same credit card #……How they got my email was by just a typo……their email probably is very similar to mine.So there’s really nothing to worry about…..the bookkeeper said the mistake happened with the 1st purchase and no one noticed the wrong email and eventually they got in touch with Square and asked what happened to their receipts and hopefully found the mistake.Thanks again for your interest. Ann

4

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I’ve been using square as my credit card processor for 2 years now in my restaurant. I like it! However, I would love it better if they would allow the POS part of it run tabs. For that reason I use Lavu for my POS and run the separate app Square to run credit cards. Square has been good to be and my money I do not want to leave it. I’m trying to find out if square can run on bridgepay.

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Glad to hear of your positive experience with Square’s processing. I contacted Square a couple of months ago about the possibility of a running tab/suspended ticket feature, and they said that they are working on it. That feature would really give the app a great competitive edge versus similar free apps. Not sure about Square’s compatibility with BridgePay, my thought is that it wouldn’t work. Keep us posted with your experiences!

Best, Tom

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I have been using square with the reader for over a year now, and now to avoid the keyed transactions, i use the square invoice. That way i still receive a swiped rate as well as mitigate the issues of the risk involved with card not present. I personally dont like receiving card payment over the phone anyway. I run a wedding and event rental and decor business and my clients love paying with the square invoice i send them. I have not had any issues at all with square. Even though i process less than $4,000 a month via square as i encourage cash, check and email money transfer a lot and no single transaction over $2,000 yet so i guess am low risk. These having issues can try the square invoicing, works like a charm. Was going to switch to Cosco payment by Evalon with a bit better rate but overall nothing beats having no set up or monthly fee. I was able to pull the report on how much i charged and paid in fees last year within 3 clicks and 3 minutes for these having issues with reporting via the reporting module on dashboard. I also have only done one refund from a mistaken double swipe and no other charge backs so i think i dont raise much red flags. If i ever have an issue with them, i wont hesitate to switch to the Cosco offered gateway though.

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How you can say there customer service is good or even existent is beyond me! they are holding 9753.11 on one job 5200.00 on another that’s 15000.00 dollars and don’t give me the 90 days bs this is 7 months after the jobs were completed and paid out money was taking from the customers account that day! I have not once got a person on the phone. my BBB complaint is still pending my AG complaint is being looked into. It’s sad that its going to cost me my 4,000.00 retainer for my lawyer to handle this. I hope they get shut down and have to pay back double for all the loses they are incurring on others!

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I had a craft show last Saturday and was not able to complete all my transactions online due to the room I was in. Someone suggested working offline to check out my customers. I had 11 transactions but only 3 appear on my register. It is now Monday and I don’t want to loose the information from my sales. I am trying to contact Customer Service but am not having good luck getting through. Does anyone know what I should do to save these transactions so they will appear on my register?

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This company should be held accountable for not explaining why all these small business accounts are being deactivated with no explanation. I am the most honest person out there and do everything by the book. The account was closed and not one person in this company will tell me why. They have all my money and will not get it for 90 days. I am getting a lawyer and think everyone should do the same for how this goes down….treated like criminals with no explanation why. They cannot get away with this. I have never wanted to sue anyone in my life…but the embarrassment and making me feel like I have done something wrong is cruel…and my funds would have been nice for the kids at xmas. 🙁

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I’m semi retired and have small upholstery business. Generally, I take anywhere from 0-3 credit card transactions per month, but mostly my customers pay by check and occasionally by cash. I dumped my “traditional’ credit card processor a couple of months ago, and I think this is probably the best business decision I made in 2014. I got tired of the monthly fees, compliance fee, and looking at monthly statements from them that made me go cross eyed. I like the fact that I know exactly what each transaction costs me. The square is an easy system to learn, even for a low tech guy like me. My largest single transaction was $3500.00. So far, I have had no issues whatsoever.

5

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It’s so disheartening to read this article and the subsequent comments. Our mobile and brick and mortar shop has used square since it’s first month in business and have never had any mentionable issues.

We process thousands of dollars per week, we have had bugs but not any more than my computer updates or phone apps.We have never paid more than $250 in fees since we encourage cash and check payments too.The spreadsheets and options for accounting are really useful.I have always received fast response when contacting support.

I recommend square daily,

Gabrielle Krake

5

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I decided to sign up for square and based on their advertisments I have basically unlimited amount of transactions I can process. After my third one my account was closed and my funds held for 90 days. Their explanation ” we feel you are a risky customer” I processed cards just like they said to so I dont understand whats so risky. After going back and fourth with them they said they cant help me. So I looked online and found a facebook page aimed at square bad business pratices and it seems they only do this to small business, larger corporations are not affected.

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Having a bad Square experience. I am a LLC, Success on the move is my registered alias. I got the square so I would have to always be going to the bank. With my large weight loss groups swiping 20 to 30 cards was too expensive. It was hard to find a group member who would put it all on their card. For my convenience I started telling the group organizers if they would collect the money and buy a gift card to pay with not only would I pay the activation fee but their session would be free. It worked great until Square put a hold on my money. If they don’t want me as a customer fine but they need to give my money back!

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I am having a terrible experience with square. They closed my account and told me I have to wait 90 days to see my money.Due to some high risk actions.I don’t know what they are talking about it… I run a small snow plow business and I offer this method of payment for my customers this year.I keep getting emails but not a straight answer .

I am sending emails asking to please call me and provide me with a better explanation of why?How can I filled a complaint ?Or speak with a real person . They won’t provide me with a code

5

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I’m sorry to hear that you are going through this. I wish there was an easy solution.

For Square, the protocol is often “shoot first, ask questions never.” If they deem an account or transaction high-risk for whatever reason (it’s unlikely that they will ever explain to you in detail their rationale), then they will pull the plug to minimize the risk. And after they close your account, it’s very difficult – maybe impossible – to get live customer service, as you have already found out.

My advice to you is, unfortunately, to just wait it out and collect the funds after 90 days. If after 90 days you have still not received the funds, then it will be time to file a formal complaint. Until then, they are following the protocols outlined in the Terms of Service.

In terms of why this happened, there are many possibilities. Again, you are unlikely to ever get an official answer from Square. But here are some guesses:

Or it could just be that their computers misinterpreted the data from your account and flagged it for termination. Even if this is the case, they will still hold the money for 90 days and there is little that you can do to expedite the process other than provide them with any paperwork they ask for.

Again, I’m sorry to hear that this happened. I know how much of a burden it is for businesses to have to wait three months for funds. If you are interested in another processing option, check out Flint. They have pricing comparable to Square, and they very rarely will hold funds. They also provide live telephone customer service – no “code” necessary – so if a problem does come up you will be able to talk to a real person about it.

Take care, Tom

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I started looking at Square because I am in the process of starting an equipment rental business. My issue is that most of these most of these mobile payment systems seem to by simple point of sale systems.

I need to be able to charge the customer the rental amount upon pickup, but still have the ability to charge them additional amounts if there is damage upon return or if the equipment is lost or stolen.

My other viable option would be a system that runs the card upon pickup or online payment and just authorizes the card and then charges the determined amount after the item is returned.

Are these functions available for rental type businesses in a mobile payment application?

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Hi Nate, I was wondering if you ever found a way to do your rental business. I’m curious about starting one of my own. I want to rent a bunch of small items, kind of the same idea as RedBox, but not movies. I know they charge you for the entire DVD if you don’t bring it back within 21 days, so there has to be a way to do this. Feel free to email me at collinsjus@gmail.com, maybe we can help each other out.

Many thanks, Justin

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The ability to charge for unreturned rental merchandise may have more to do with the structure of your Terms of Use or other contractual obligations agreed upon by the renting party than it does with the service provider you choose. There are a few ways you could handle this. What you will definitely need is a payment gateway that allows for card info storage. This way, you will be able to charge the card for unreturned merchandise in accordance with your rental agreement without needing the customer to resubmit the payment information. This will also protect you in case of chargebacks. I’m not aware of any payment systems that create this infrastructure, but with a little creativity and perhaps a freelance developer you could do this without too much difficulty using a service like Braintree Payments or Stripe.

I haven’t worked with anyone to set up this particular type of system, but it’s certainly doable. It will require some customization on your end though. If I were you I’d look at a company that closely resembles what you’re thinking of doing and use that as a starting template. You should seek qualified legal advice regarding how to set this up. Please note that this is not intended to be legal advice.

Good luck, Tom

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Hi Tom, I have recently taken up the task of helping my father run his cafe of 18yrs. It had definitely run it’s course and he was almost bankrupt and looking to sell before he lost everything. We’ve turned it into a music venue at night/cafe by day and have more than tripled our volume in the last 18 months. The only thing keeping us from making more money is how long it takes to ring a sale or close tabs. We have a terrible old pos that his “buddy” put together. I am on the search for a new, faster pos with multiple stations. He was looking at Square to save money and was intrigued by the ipads. I’m not sure this is the right choice for us and pretty reluctant to use a mobile processor. Do you have any suggestions on what pos system to go with? We need everything. Hardware too. But since we are just a father/daughter business, we don’t have a lot of money to spend. Thanks, Chantell

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Thanks for checking out our reviews! I think we can find a happy medium between your current set up and a mobile service like Square. While there are a ton of businesses out there who have good experiences with Square, there are also a lot of problems with the service so I don’t generally recommend it as a first choice. But I have to say that, dollar for dollar, it’s hard to beat a service that offers a basic iPad POS and basic card processing with no monthly fee. But what you save in monthly fees you can quickly lose to headaches.

Have you checked out Leaf? I like that they offer affordable hardware (but not iPad) and can be used with virtually any credit card processor. This is one of the lower-cost options out there for a full-feature tablet-based POS. Just remember that your merchant account will have fees in addition to the POS. The good news is that if you are happy with your current payment processor, you can probably keep them.

Take a look at our other POS reviews if you haven’t already, along with some of our other POS-related resources, and please email me if I can be of any help. I’d also be glad to forward you to someone else from Merchant Maverick who is more of an expert in POS options.

Take care, Tom

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This company is a FRAUD. They are keeping $7K of my money for no reason for three months. I sent all my info to them and with many emails to them with not one response I get an email telling me that I am deactivated and that it is permanent with no given reason. Please spread the word about this horrible company. I have also logged a complaint at the BBB and Ripoff Reports. I suggest the same to all those that have been burned by this crappy company.

1

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I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve had, but I can assure you that Square is in no way affiliated with Leaders Merchant Services. In fact, the Square reader is only compatible with Square’s proprietary processing service, which has no monthly/annual fees and can indeed be canceled at any time. Please feel free to email me at tom@merchantmaverick.com if I can help you to choose a different processor.

Best, Tom

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Tom……I think you guys are missing the point. I….calculated the sales tax on those sales. THEY…..now hold that sales tax money! THAT IS ILLEGAL!!!!!!!! This company is headed for a “terrible shitstorm!” I also wonder whether or not, these “low level” computer “clerks”, actually receive a bonus for de-activating accounts! Wouldn’t that be something?? But….until someone can actually talk to an employee of the company, all we can do is surmise what is actually going on inside their “cubicles”.

What these companies are doing is hiding behind “ATT vs. Concepcion”, basically giving these big companies a “license to steal”. Who is actually going to go to Ca. from Ma. to an “Arbitration” hearing for $2, 3, $4 or even $6,000??? The problem is…..It’s not happening to consumers…..but business owners. What other card processing company has an “industry standard” of NO communication…..De-activating accounts with NO NOTICE……Holding funds from LEGALLY made transactions after getting ALL THE INFORMATION ABOUT A BUSINESS THEY ASKED FOR????? NO DISPUTE PROCESS…….And ON AND ON AND ON………..They are committing credit card fraud themselves! They cannot just, make their own rules up as they go along. There are certain state and federal guidelines they have to follow. This company IS going to be “found out”, but NOT before many other small business owners, either suffer or go bankrupt. SQUARE is “bilking” THOUSANDS of dollars…..from THOUSANDS of small business owners! This isn’t just some small amount of money here. This HAS to be in the 10′s of millions. Move over “Bernie”…….You might have a new cell mate(s).

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

It is standard practice to withhold the entire transaction(s), including sales tax collected, when funds are held in reserve. This is because the reserve is held in order to protect the processor from loss in case of future chargebacks. If a chargeback occurs, the tax will also have to be refunded. Therefore they hold the tax to ensure they do not have to refund it out of pocket should a chargeback occur. Again, I can’t attest to this from a lawyer’s point of view, but this is how it is done across the board, not just with Square.

For aggregated accounts, sudden account terminations are very common and often come with no warning and little explaination. This includes companies like Stripe and Balanced Payments, as well as Square and PayPal Here. Communication and account stability are usually better with full-service merchant accounts, but even then sudden account closure and withheld funds are possible depending on the processor’s Risk department.

And again, I’m not defending this as a good business practice or even a fair protocol. But it’s important to see where Square fits in the bigger picture. If we can help you to find a better and more reliable processor, please send us a message.

Take care, Tom

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Not only are they holding $6,113.00 from me…..But State Sales Tax on LEGALLY sold goods in the Commonwealth of Ma. I think “their” legal team of “DEWEY, CHEATUM, and HOWE” , missed this little tidbit. My fiscal quarter ended 10/21/14. Sent my “Letter of Demand” in on 10/14/14. Was received by them on the 16th. We’ll see what they say. In the Commonwealth of Ma……If no response is received…….then “their” contract or “USER” agreement is, IN FACT…..null and void! Read the news people! The company is IN TROUBLE! With wide losses and a new round of $150 Million in funding from overseas investors. ALSO……this BIG pool of money being held from ALL of us being “duped” by Square, is supposedly held in an account. NOW……Is this LARGE pool of CASH, (OUR CASH), being used by SQUARE as leverage, to show a better cash position to investors than the company actually has??? My guess is it’s in the 10’s of millions…..judging by the complaints and amounts of money I think they are holding. Of course……That would be a SERIOUS violation of SEC rules. Anyone know what the daily interest rate is, on say…..$10 million dollars in cash!?? OH…..and by the way…….If the card transactions I made are considered “high risk” or fraudulent…..Then why did SQUARE extract their own fees….like IMMEDIATELY? Think about how Jack Dorsey portrays himself in interviews. This seemingly soft spoken…..meek…..6′ 4” gentle giant. Wolf in sheep’s clothing I say! We need to act fast here, as this has been going on for years. Only now, MORE AND MORE business owners are being taken by these devious tactics of this company! It seems to be a pattern. Most of what I see are the transactions between $1,000 and $10,000 are most at risk. I just cannot believe that “class action” hasn’t been filed yet? Think about the “trickle” effect of these funds being held for NO good reason…….Small businesses file bankruptcy…..THEIR employees are now out of work. Larger suppliers of these companies cannot get their funds…..so they take a loss. In my case…….which I was able to cover the funds being held, (but some businesses just cannot and NEVER recover), 4 other people would have lost their jobs! I provide a MUCH needed, and “highly specialized”, service to Western Massachusetts. If my business didn’t survive this “theft”, there would be literally hundreds of customers without use of their heating appliances this winter! Anyone who wants to go “CLASS ACTION”…. Contact me at TMS PELLET STOVE SERVICES….90 East Housatonic St. Dalton Ma. 01226 1-413-684-4590………..PS HEY SQUARE TEAM……..You can also call me, and actually see that “I” am a LEGALLY RECOGNIZED BUSINESS IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. :-)>

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Rude, rude, rude & unprofessional!! Spent 21 minutes on hold only to have the customer service representative hang up on me when I asked to speak to a supervisor! Called back only to spend 32 minutes on hold for a supervisor. He was rude & offered no apologies for the long hold times or being hung up on. Then to top it off I got an email a few hours later stating that my funds would not be released until the account was verified! The account had previously been verified! Really suspicious especially after calling a few hours before to complain… So I jump through all their hoops AGAINZ to be told that my funds would not be released for at least three days. In the meantime my husband has been stranded halfway across the country for 2 days now with no money for food, gas, or hotels! These people hold your funds hostage after charging a huge processing fee! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY IT IS A SCAM & THE WILL HOLD YOUR MONEY HOSTAGE!!!

1

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I had used them several times as a customer and originally had no problems, but suddenly they started sending receipts to my husband. HIs email was not hooked up to the bank accounts and he had not used square as far as we could remember, so I was alarmed. All they did was send us emails with links to articles. She wrote me numerous times, instead of just getting on the phone and fixing the problem. I’m very concerned as to why I would swipe a card and my husband would get an email. What other info do they have that they are mismanaging?

1

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Well I have been searching for a cheap POS system and support with no credit check since I am a first time business operator with less then 2yrs history to do a lease agreement… but thanks to all of the comments that I read I will not be using Square and it look so tempting.. Thanks to all the people that took the time to let a newbie know which company to stay away from

5

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After reading some of the reviews, I was reluctant to sign up with Square. However, oneof the most respected craft brewerys, a fellow winery and Starbucks use of the product prompted me to reconsider and contact them. No more than fifteen minutes after my call, Kristi from Square called me and answered all of my questions with courtesy andeffeciency. She gave me her company phone number and said to call anytime I had aquestion. I am signing up tomorrow!

5

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Man…after $2500 was held from my account after a few large deposits, I found this site and y’all scared the crap out of me.

I’m not even a business owner; I actually was purchasing equipment at my own expense for trainees, and used Square to collect reimbursement–there was no mark up and no profit–just a straight reimbursement. Luckily, I will be with my cardholders in a conference for two more days and will have an opportunity to get another form of payment from them…I got so scared about losing what amounts to a month’s salary that I immediately processed a few large refunds and was able to successfully back myself out of all of the charges so that there is nothing pending for deposit anymore. As soon as I know the cardholders got their refunds, I’m cancelling the hell out of this account. No more Square for me (though, like some other son here, I really liked it, until this went down. )

So disappointing.

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This company is terrible! No phone support. I had $2000.00 tied up for almost 2 weeks, I had to issue a refund because I made a typo and the wrong email was applied. This could have been a quick fix; however, account services never contacted me! The email that was wrong they kept email that one! I told customer support to have them send it to a different email and this never happened. Don’t use square for large transactions. I used it for a smaller one and it went through just fine.

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SQUARE is the biggest scam out there. They canceled my account saying I was doing high risk (illegal) traNSACTIONS. I am a TRAVEL Agency, fully licensed, and Insuired ( E&O and Liability). I have been in the travel business for 11 years, on a routine transaction the funds where held for 6 days when they canceled my account. I do not recommend this scam company to anyone. they will burn you. Oh you never get to talk to people they don’t allow phone calls. Stay with the banks, I wish I would have.

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The set up was easy, overall experience awful. Square requested information about my business and products which I provided. They encouraged verified my bank account and encouraged transactions. Two days after the second transaction they held all my funds for both sales for 90 days and deactivated my account. There is absolutely no phone support available if your account is deactivated. I request to speak to a representative daily and the response is always “Sorry, that is not possible”. They also give no reason for the action, as state section 42 of merchant agreement they don’t have to give a reason. Do you really think you can operate a business with no phone support or representative access? I would like to give negative stars to this company.

1

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I believe square is so full of “crap” as of 1 yr. And 2 weeks today 9/18/2014. Square has yet to deposit my 13,600.00 and or refund to my customer .they give numerous excuses to my customer of why they can release the funds to either he of my self the business owner ..bull crap..I’ve contacted the district atty. Social media and television to bring these scam artist down …clicks ticking …they have passed so many of by deactivating our accts. And say high risk fraud bullshit to use our money to make money …bull crap …The man upstairs watches all things and karma .Don’t be giving me crap that it is a good company to do business with because it’s not ….

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My experience was similar. They have now had my $6,200 for over 30 days. They give no reason “for security reasons” and repeated requests to speak to a representative are answered “Sorry, that is not possible”. This is very hurtful to small businesses. We need to get the word out, stay strong.

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Square has got to be the biggest joke in the industry. We signed up for square when they first hit the market and had no problems up until last month. I had received an email from them about updating my reader and since my business only processes cards a few times a year in the fall, I didn’t to it immediately. Two weeks ago, I signed into my account, and the account was noted that it was permanently deactivated. I searched my emails to see if I had received anything from them and I had not, other than the notices to upgrade my reader. Since they have ZERO phone support, I was left with sending them an email as to why my account was deactivated. I received a reply from that I was running an illegal business and according to their terms, there service was not to be used for gambling or betting and that their decision was final and the deactivation of the account could not be reversed. I was floored, I responded back to them that I didn’t run an illegal business, that my business did not involve gambling or betting. That I had been in business for 12 years and had used their company for 4 years and asked them how they came to their conclusion, and since I was being accused, by them, of running an illegal business that I should be able to know how they came to this conclusion and why had I never received notice that my account had been deactivated. They responded back to me that by the terms with M/C & Visa, they didn’t have to disclose anything period. I’m one of the lucky ones, as I didn’t have any funds pending, for if I had, they could hold my funds for 90 days. I have filed a complaint with the BBB and apparently square is not communicating with them either. I will admit that when I was using square, I was very happy with it, but just to leave me high and dry with no notice, or explanation is totally unacceptable.

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Based on comments, I see most people have issues with Square holding up the $$$ in case of larger transactions ($5000+). Is that a case for a small business like a coffee shop where an average sale is between $4-$10, with no more than $1,000 in gross daily sales.

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Smaller average ticket value along with 100% swiped transactions (not keyed-in) will generally produce the most reliable results with Square (and most other processors really). Large transactions and transactions where the card was not swiped carry the greatest risk, and are thus most prone to trigger a red flag. So while there is never a guarantee (since things can go wrong even with small transactions, like if a customer doesn’t recognize the charge and initiates a chargeback, or if a charge ends up being fraudulent), a small business like a coffee shop will be much, much, much more secure than a business selling more expensive items.

-Tom

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Square is a complete scam and rip off. I’m a small sole proprietor and relied on square. Big mistake. I file taxes for a living. I charged a few clients. And they are keeping my 2600 and terminated my account. There is no support. They asked me for my license. I provided them bank statements and license and invoice for my clients they still shut me down. And keeping my money. No way to talk to a live person. DO. NOT USE THEM YOU WILL BE SORRY WITH NO MONEY AND JUST STRESSED. I have emailed them but no response. Now when I go into my account. It says I’m terminated. And no money deposited into my bank. I’m going to file a police report since they stole my money and no response. The money is out of my clients bank account.

1

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I know how completely frustrating this is. We hear the same thing from a lot of Square users. Unfortunately, Square is within the scope of the law in this case. If you read their User Agreement, you will find that they reserve the right to withhold funds if they believe there is a risk that the transactions may be problematic. Specifically, see sections “19. Reserve” and “28. Our Collection Rights for Chargebacks.”

The good news is that I can almost definitely tell you that Square will give you your money back, or will refund it to your clients in order to have them pay you with a different method. The bad news is that it could take quite a while, between two and six months in some cases.

I’m sorry that you have to deal with this enormous headache. I hope you’ll take a look at our favorite mobile processor Flint if you would like to find a different, more reliable payments solution.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

-Tom

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Actually….Tom……Square IS NOT within the scope of the law. Just because “They” make up their own rules with a USER AGREEMENT, doesn’t make it legal. I cited, in my “Demand Letter”…..several laws and statutes they violated in Ma. as regards to “Fair Trade and Business Practices”. California laws DO NOT APPLY here, as my transactions were solely done in Ma. Besides the fact that they hold Ma. state sales tax on these goods. This can be “construed” as “hurting The Commonwealth” as stated in one law. Only “they” may not think so. This companies “reign of terror” may be coming to an end shortly. There are TOO many people that have been ripped off. I know the government is slow in working……but they cannot dismiss what is happening with this Co. forever!

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Of course I am not an expert in Massachusetts law, or any law for that matter, but I can tell you that Square’s practices are basically industry-standard – meaning that it’s the entire payment processing industry potentially breaking the law, not just Square. My opinion is that, while perhaps a case could be made in some states, Square’s legal team – based on legal precedents set within the industry at large – deemed it not a strong enough case to adjust their practices.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see these harmful protocols done away with. But unless the entire user agreement is to be dismissed we also have to consider that users have waived their rights to class-action suits by agreeing to use the service, as outlined in section 51.

Please keep us updated on your progress. I’ll be hoping for the best result possible for you and your business.

Best, Tom

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Been using them for 5 years for my business with over 300K in transactions. No issues. Fast calls, responses and emails.They aren’t perfect, but trust me, there are far far worst credit processing companies out there and this is among the good ones.

Fraud. If you get a fraudulent transaction, there are no companies which will just be on your side. It all requires a lot of “detective” work. Since they are just a processing company, they just do what Credit card companies do. If someone files for a chargeback, they just have to give in. There’s very little protection from ANY processing companies.

5

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Fraud charges are a hassle any way you look at it. The difference between a reliable company and Square is that most processors inform you of a disputed charge or questionable charge and let you know which specific transaction is at issue. Square gives no information, NONE. You may never know where the issue lies, by the time you get your other funds deposited (at least 3 months), it is often too late to find the customer and go back and resolve an issue. Square is NOT a reputable company to do business with.

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This just happened to me! I can’t get a hold of anyone, no one is explaining to me why my account was deactivated and they’re holding my money. I am a self employed delivery man and one of my customers suggested I sign up with them to make things easier when it comes to payments with credit cards. I just used them once and they deactivated my account. Has anyone been able to get an answer from them.

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This is by far the sorriest company I’ve ever done business with. They are holding 8900.00 of my money for no reason and have closed my account for NO reason. Read # 42 of there terms and it says they can close you down for no reason and hold your money.

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This company facilitates fraud. I received a 450 dollar fraudulent charge from a cab through the Square payment gateway. I am investigating this with the police because I have a name from the card payment that matches up with a taxi driver. Square gives me no information so I just have the name to go off of. The bank sided with him because he has a receipt after he manipulated the device to have a different number than the taxi meter.

It is illegal to use Square in Boston said the police officer I spoke to. Square should be help more accountable for this. You should not be allowed to have a merchant account with no information… I bet a lot of their merchants commit fraud regularly.They literally gave me no information on this transaction after I emailed them a bunch of times.

1

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no rating Horrified.. I was completely shut down. I am a new online business. I received 4-5 very large orders all overseas.. They all have paid me and now I cannot access any of my funds to pay the shipping fees… I need my $ What kind of company shuts you down just because you have products that customers want and have paid for I want answers!!!!!

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They make it so easy to sign up that few read the agreement or believe they would actually be able to indiscriminately holds funds for what ever reason they see fit for as long as they deem necessary without any means to communicate with them.The agreement makes them bullet proof, that is why we have not seen a class action law suit again them. I am now using Swipe, great support customer service, you call they call you back, they tell what perimeters of your account would cause a “high risk” hold of funds. Also they offer both a Merchant account and a aggravate accounts, Square only has the aggravate account system. My wife had 5,000 “pending for over a month, 5 emails to square and not one reply. Pretty scarey with no recourse other than to file a complaint to the BBB in San Francisco Fortunately we had relationships with our customers were able to refund them and they paid up by other means. The only thing that see to work with square is the refund policy. What a night mare doing buisnes with them. We feel like fools.

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i ran 3 transactions total $2500. no problem. next day i get email daying my account was closed. because my company name weeding and more . a landscape company. so i reapllied fix the issue. said i was approved. ran 3 cc total $1100. i didnt get the confirmation email or and thing. money was pulled from my account and customers.should be in.my account tomorrow am. i found numbers and addresses.

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Square did not tell us that if we had a swipe over 2,500.00 that they would take the money and place a hold on it for 90 days and then it comes up for review again and could then again be held an additional 90 days. Our client had to cancel the card so that she could pay us for our services rendered. What an inconvenience this was for our client and us a new small business. Run from them as fast as you can. They took 3450.00 from us to hold for up to 180 days. That cannot happen to a young co and expect to advance. All of your reputable local banks offer the same service at a REASONABLE RATE

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We are a small art gallery with original items to sell and it is important to note that the Square does not support making your own barcodes or having a company make your bar codes. The barcodes have to be the international ones that already come on products.

Secondly they are saying that a Motorola Symbol LS2208 barcode scanner is compatible. This scanner s $100. Not sure of the quality as it doesn’t work with our self-made barcodes.

They NOW have a phone number for support. The people were awesome. It’s right on their web page.

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I would love to know the customer support number. The only number I have is answered by a computer that asks for your passcode, directs you to the FAQ’s on the website, and hangs up. Passcodes are sent out at Square’s discretion, and only good for a short time. I have been emailing Square daily asking for a call or a passcode and they keep replying that passcodes are only for active Square merchants. This is the reason they give no warning when deactivating, they will not allow contact with a customer service representative.

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I found that taking Square to arbitration motivates them to respond much faster. They will likely drag their feet during the process to the point where I had to pay the arbitration fees myself (however, once I sent the payment in, Square followed up making the payment themselves as required by the user agreement).

All in All – I found the their practices to be dishonest, but their counsel was semi-reasonable. And by that I mean, he was an advocate for a (dishonest) Square but was decent himself.

Hopefully my arbitration goes well.

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Has anyone received their money after waiting the 30 or 180 days? How many individuals have had money held for longer than 180 days?

Their holding our money as well. $2154. Should we call the buyer (State of Alaska) and tell them to dispute the transaction? Perhaps they would issue us a check instead and then fight the transaction. I believe the credit card company (US BANK) should not hold the consumer liable for fraudulent charges, therefore the state should be able to get their money back. Is this a good approach?

We have contacted our bank and frozen the account so that Square cannot steal further funds from us. Should we just wait it out or have the state dispute the charges?

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Do what i did after making a $1500 transaction i was then prompted as high risk which wasnt true in the least i then read the outcome of these horribly long holding periods and imediatly issued a refund it took 3 days and i then requested a check from the cardholder took less then a week do this or you will be waiting for a long time

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Sale was waiting on me to enter his card; Amount,…. card number….. and it wouldn’t go any further! Could not reach Squareup by email and NO phone number??!! This blows Big. That was a big sale and it walked. Good rates mean S&*t if you can’t use the thing.

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Square allows people to use their own cards to deposit money in to their own accounts. Basically a cash advance off the credit card without paying the higher cash advance fees. Supposedly against the terms and conditions. They also allow the card of anyone else to be used in this way. My card was used somehow on a square reader account for 1000 and no vendor info was ever provided. It was linked to my own phone number. I do not own a reader so not sure how the scam works but they better figure it out. Since its my own phone number my credit card account wont’ consider it fraud but they will try to charge cash advance fees! Stay away from Square readers. The information is not safe.

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That’s pretty horrific. You are describing common credit card fraud, and it is more than against Square’s terms and conditions – it’s against the law. Processing your own card for cash would be enough for account termination. Processing someone else’s card without their knowledge, and it’s a matter for the police without a doubt. With any credit card machine or software, not just Square, the user can simply type in the card number to process the transaction. It sounds like someone stole your credit card and contact information to commit credit card fraud. If someone committed credit card fraud using your card information, you should contact your card company immediately.

Good luck, Tom

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I do about 15,000 a month using Square. We love the interface and the support hasn’t been bad via email. We have never had any transactions held and this is after 10 months worth and 500 of them a month.

However they are not perfect, there is some accounting issues that have us concerned. Numbers on the Ipad reports do not always match the transactions on their website when you log in. This has caused numerous issues. Also, when they want to update your app the app just goes haywire until you do the update. I wish it was more stable in that sense.

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We went with Square on the iPad with the Square stand, the cash drawer and the Bluetooth receipt printer. After the initial learning curve (maybe it’s intuitive for Apple die-hards but for the rest of us the app was not logically arranged) we managed to get it going but… the power cord/adapter unit kept breaking. Again and again and again.

My take is that Apple stuff and apps for Apple are fine for consumers but aren’t up to real-world use. So if you want to play “shop” in your bedroom this is fine; otherwise look for a grown-up POS and related hardware.

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STAY AWAY FROM SQUARE! I was using Square for over a year and now today they send me a email stating they have to close my account. Got my money and are going to hold it for 90 days till they release it. I didn’t make the Customer wait 90 days for him to get his truck fixed.

SQUARE SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS RATE —-100%

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Been doing business with square for over 2 years. I do about $10000 a month I transactions . Never caused any issues for them . One small refund and that’s it. Sent me email today that they have to close my account immediately and hold my reserve of $4000 for 120 to 180 days. Said I was high risk business. 2 years of multiple transactions and no problems and all the sudden I am high risk. Holding my $4000 for 6 months . Stay away from square. I am not flyby night . Been in business for 10 years. I rent tv s and furniture.

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I love square. For a small business like mine that does 99% of its business off line its perfect. Set up took some time for approvals but I was OK with that. I’ve also never had a problem with payments. I was a bit concerned that they use twitter for support but for the 2 minor problems I’ve had, it was fine. I was able to connect a printer barcode scanner and cash drawer and love that with a flip of a switch I can sell that item online with their market place or copy some side to my web site and sell it there. My only complaint is setting the shipping for the market. They say they are working on a shipping calculator so I can wait. There is no way I could get all the square offers for less money some where else. I am very grateful.

5

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ABSOLUTELY NOT! Customer service is a BIG DEAL to me and Square has NONE. I spent three days emailing back and forth with Square over an issue that probably could have been resolved in a few seconds over the phone. After an EXHAUSTIVE search, I found 2 phone numbers for Square. Both numbers were just a recording, directing you to email them. Even when I REQUESTED a phone call, I was denied. Myself and the merchant in question sent a final entail plee to Square. A response didn’t come until EIGHT HOURS LATER! To add insult to injury, the email STILL didn’t address the issue. Good concept, but NO THANK YOU TO SQUARE!

1

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I would like to help with this lawsuit. $700+ dollars they have held for over 1.5 years without giving it to me. They have 100% stolen my money. I want paid plus interest. Call me at 979 248 7916 (ANYONE WHO WANTS TO START THIS LAWSUIT WITH ME) Thank you in advance for your support. Looking forward to your soon reply and call. My name is Wesley. Again my number is 979 248 7916.

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I gave Square a try because I wanted to sell my novel online, and I wanted a simple payment gateway that would accept credit cards. Square bills itself as a site where customers can purchase your products either from their computers, PDA, iPhone, etc. This was perfect I thought.

However, using Square proved very cumbersome. Here’s what found:

â€”Signing in to Square was often a nightmare. Often I would go to the sign in screen, enter the correct info, only to have it kicked back as incorrect. I went over this several times, to make sure I’d entered the correct information. It still kicked it back as incorrect. Eventually, it let me in, but the fact this happened was very significant. This is a site that will be holding my money. Can I trust a site that has problems just signing in?

â€”I went to my profile screen and tried to upload a photo. The photo file was not overly large, and I’ve placed the same photo on other sites, easily. When I tried to upload the photo, the “save” button remained grayed out and it would never save. That is, until I went to the bottom of the page just for the heck of it (to see what would happen), and changed one of the profile page colors. Then the “save” button darkened and I found I could hit “save.” Thing is, I didn’t really want to change the colors, I just did it to see if it would make something happen. And it did. And that’s bizarre. I shouldn’t have to go change a stupid color just to make a “save” button work. That’s just inane. BTW, the photo still did not upload.

â€”I went to the link marked forms. This page would not load, the little circle-timer icon just kept swirling. It locked up the page and I had to shut down the program and restart it. Like I said before, I shouldn’t have to do that. Square’s technology should be able to handle any computer, any technology. And my computer is a popular brand, and I keep it updated. I found that I had to go back and reset my browser to get back into the site. Then the problem still occurred.

â€”In the above example, I also found on a couple of occasions that if I hit the “back” button on my browser, in order to get out of the page, it would sign me out of the system and take me right back to the sign-in screen. Then I had to sign in all over again, and encountered the sign-in problems again (see above).

â€”Customer service. Contacted Square about one of the above issues. The did not respond.

Suggestions for Square: â€”Get your technology straight, please. You guys have a great idea. Run with.

â€”Have a screen where I, the merchant, can set up what my shopping cart/checkout screen will look like for the customer. Also, since this is an online business, make it so that my street address does not appear.

â€”Make it so I can upload a simple JPEG and have it save. Without having to push any other buttons.

â€”I just want to accept payments from anyone, anywhere, using any kind of device. Note that I didn’t say that I would be using those devices. What’s important to me is that the customer be able to send payment (via credit card, ACH or bank account) via their own computers or devices. That’s it. It’s convenient for them, and it’s convenient for me. Please make this happen.

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I will tell EVERYONE I KNOW how horrible Square is! I had a customer request what Square calls a “chargeback” in the amount of $602.97. The company didn’t even ask me about it. They chose to deduct the amount from my checking account! Does this mean that if a customer gets a burr up their butt that they can just lie to Square and automatically get a refund? I have tried calling them, filling out Cancel Account requests, e-mail…..you name it! Square is a crooked company and should be removed from all types of business!

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Chargebacks are extremely frustrating and not always fair. Buyers can, and sometimes do, abuse the chargeback system. While Square could absolutely do a better job of helping to arbitrate chargebacks, this is a problem that you’ll come across no matter which processor you choose. If you’re interested in more information about chargebacks and what you can do to prevent them and fight them, check out this article. Also, if you’re interested in working with a credit processor that offers better customer service than Square, you should take a look at our higher rated processors via this chart. If you’re only interested in mobile processors, then check out this one instead. Best of luck.

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I am so upset just really feel like getting the law involved bc i have not recieved any deposits since december from the square card reader company and now my bills are being affect bc of that and iam a salon owner been waiting on a response but no email

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Who can I use besides square that has a portable swiper for my phone or iPad..I’m also experiencing issues with the square and after reading all these awful reviews am getting really nervous. My bank offers their own type of “square” system but there seemed to be a lot more fees involved..but now I’m thinking it might be worth it! Because there actually is someone to call..I can’t believe someone with some authority hasn’t taken on the Square!..shame on the BBB!

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I’d recommend you check out our Mobile Payments comparison chart to see the best options out there. Many of them offer phone-based customer service and no monthly fees. Square may be the most popular provider, but that definitely doesn’t make them the best! Thanks for reading.

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This is a warning to anyone and everyone that is using square or considering using square for merchant services. Please be advised that square is holding $12,000 for transactions that were done in the normal course of our daily business. We processed a transaction for $12,000, the client picked up their merchandise and signed for the merchandise. Square has decided to hold this money even though there are no disputes. After numerous calls and emails, all representatives of square state that they can do whatever they want. According to [Name Removed], the last representative I have spoken to, they dont consider this stealing, really ?!? I am seriously considering a class action suit against square. Please advise if any other companies have run into this situation.

Stuart ScheinmanManaging Director, Movie Star News702-210-6208

1

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Squareup.com allowed a chargeback be done by a customer for 865.00, they disputed 560.00 of the money and awarded it back to the customer and I am still waiting on the remaining amount that is owed back to me. I worked very hard for that money and I sent numerous emails explaining the situation and I think it is absolutely ridiculous that you can not speak with a live person regarding matters with your money. That should be illegal how they run their website. I am about to send them another email regarding this matter since they have not bothered to respond back to a few others I sent. I am ready to get away from them and go with my bank to process credit card transactions for the business. It has been a nightmare with them and I wish I never went with them in the first place.

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So I have used square since December. I typically do like 5 charges a week As a personal trainer it was nice for my clients. I recently opened a gym And we were in the process of setting up auto bill for the eft and it did not Go through in time to bill march through that system. So I billed each person Individual which was like 85-90 transactions. And now they have cancelled my Account w them after I sent them all info they requested. And they have put A 90 day hold on my funds. It is $$1720.00. There reason was that I was a high risk business and that there is nothing more they can do. Since my claim is closed I can no longer get then on the phone. I am really In a bad place now because that is the money I expected to use towards rent. So I will never use square again. And would advise everyone else the same

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Unfortunately our return and refund policy are aligned with VISA’s return and refund policy. Which is any return or refund is to be credited back to it’s original form of payment. I’m unable to issue a return or a refund to a customer who’s payment is not in my possession. Simply put, I can’t return something I don’t have. I do not want those funds to be deposited into my account, because those funds do not belong to me, they belong to my customer. So if you are unable to provide me with a reason to relay back to my customer to excuse you from your choice of response, then I will be withdrawing my involvement in this transaction. I will inform my customer it is no longer in my hands and will be providing my customer your company’s name Square Inc, so that this dispute may be resolved directly between the involved parties; my client and Square Inc. My client will be contacting you directly and your failure to respond or resolve this matter may or may not result in law enforcement recovering missing/stolen funds.

By the way, you should not assume that people will understand your intention to retain funds, or refusal to return funds for the reason of being unable to. It is an unprofessional response, not to mention your failure to provide a viable solution to resolve a problem that’s a direct result of your dysfunction.

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 23, 2014, at 10:34 AM, Square Support Team wrote:

Hi Thuan,

Thanks for writing back. We are unable to process this refund, and the funds currently in your account will be held for 90 days before being released to your linked bank account.

If you are able, you may refund your customer outside of Square and then receive the funds in 90 days. Alternatively, you may wait 90 days to receive the deposit.

Thank you for understanding.

CrystalSquare Account ServicesAccepting internet and phone orders? Please take a minute to review leading merchant practices when accepting internet and phone orders.

thuanqyenJAN 23, 2014 | 06:18PM PSTThat’s hilarious. What is square doing hiring high schoolers? Jesus, that’s okay, I’ll give you another chance, here’s a hint: please refer to the original inquiry at the bottom of the e-mail, and for one million dollars… Is that your final answer?

Whatever your answer is I would like to take a moment to educate you by providing you an example you can relate to. So Olivia, you owe your friend Griffin money, your too busy so you ask your other friend Dawn to help you return the money. Along the way, Dawn decides she has more important things to do and runs her own errands and forgets about returning your money to Griffin for you. Griffin finally calls you and asks when you will paying him back, You tell him not to worry and that Dawn should be arriving shortly to pay him back on your behalf. The next day you meetup with Dawn and she totally forgot to complete your errand. You ask her if she has returned the money to Griffin for you and she replies oh noooo I was unable to because you didn’t give me enough money to pay him back completely so I didnâ€™t meet him up. Then Dawn tops that off with a, you should probably pay him back yourself with your money and walks off minding her own business without returning the money to you. So Olivia, what would you do in this situation? Obviously you can’t pay Griffin back the money thatâ€™s in Dawnâ€™s possession can you?

Ordinary Guy,ThuanHello,

Thanks for writing in. I took a look at your account and see that we were unable to process this refund due to insufficient funds in your linked bank account.

If you would still like to refund this payment, you must do so via an alternate payment method, such as cash or check. If you issue a refund outside of Square, we recommend providing your customer a receipt and keeping a copy for your records.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

OliviaSquare Account ServicesAccepting internet and phone orders? Please take a minute to review leading merchant practices when accepting internet and phone orders.

Hello,

Thanks for writing in. Iâ€™ve gone ahead and forwarded your email to our Support team. A team member will reach out to you shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

RoxieSquare Account ServicesAccepting internet and phone orders? Please take a minute to review leading merchant practices when accepting internet and phone orders.

thuanqyenJAN 22, 2014 | 02:24AM PSTOriginal messageHi just to make sure I prevent you from successfully stealing my customers money, I’ve been informed that I must notify you of any situation changes and in the event you do not return my clients money would you please provide some sort of reason my client needs to initiate a chargeback and is unable to recover their fundsFor your reference this is Case #: 2659903

1

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I am a happy Square Customer, and accept the 2.75 as a cost of doing business. My concern is their lack of customer service and their equipment. I am on my third earphone jack reader. I purchased the square stand since the price dropped to $99. I purchased 2 from Staples, 1 from Best Buy, and now one directly from the company. All four have the same issue. The charger is not charging the unit thus making the unit useless. I have written to customer service at least 4 times, because you cannot talk to a human being. They have to know of this issue and are still allowing folks to buy the product and go through the return process. My intentions is to help someone else avoid the issue. The Square Stand (Squarestand) is a bust.

Irv Donaldson – any one can feel free to contact me or get my number from my website to call me concerning this matter.

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Irv, were you ever able to get a response from Square? I am on my second square stand and am wondering if I should just call it quits. I was able to get my 2nd one to power up for a minute but had to disconnect it to set up the counter the right way and now nothing.

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I used my daughters phone to do a transaction and forgot to log out so all her transactions went into my account.We didn’t keep track so how do we find out which phone did transaction because it was all going into my account.

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We may lose our biggest client because we chose Square Up to process our credit cards.

Don’t do it, or look for someone else before it’s too late for you, and you experience something like this:

…So our 10-year-old LLC started using Square Up back in April 2013 when we saw their funds delivery turnaround time and easy mobile app access, and everything seemed to be going well at a pace of ~$6,000 per month in transactions, until…

…one of our clients needed ~$12,000 in equipment yesterday (December 4) to recover from a fire that has shut their business down until this equipment is replaced, and after approving the transactions where they intended to hold the funds could be held for three days even if we decided to reverse the charges, SquareUp sent us a permanent cancellation email with no explanation.

Even after visiting the help section of their site, which was only a single point of contact in the form of a help request web page, and explaining our situation with a customer that they had been capturing funds from previously, they simply resent their original communication.

I don’t know how we are going to get out of the horrible situation that they have put us in, but looking completely unprofessional is just the tip of the iceberg with our client.

Be smart, and find someone else with a smartphone app to process your cc transactions.

They didn’t pull this trick on us until we had already processed three transactions totaling ~$12,000 and unless you are able to function without an entire day’s number of transactions, plus the time to find another processor, I would strongly recommend anyone who sees all these frustrated people take a warning.

…it’s definitely not worth the risk.

1

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Squareup.com … They sure do provide an aesthetic service… but customer support is nothing more than a few canned responses that get you nowhere. I’ve processed over $10k with square, all swiped transactions, then before payout time, my account gets frozen and obviously they don’t provide any reason except for high risk activity. So after my account is frozen, I receive a nice followup e-mail which clearly says that my funds will be held for 180 days… if I don’t want to wait that time I may issue refunds and have the customer pay some other method. So I decide that theres no way I can survive waiting out 180 days, and I log in and hit issue refund for about half of my transactions, around 5k worth of refunds. I check back in a few days later to look at the refunds status and all of them were rejected… I mean is that even allowed ?!? I send them an e-mail asking them what’s going on with that… and their response is simply “sorry, we do not support refunds to prepaid cards when a tip has been added.” Nothing in their terms or website says anything about refund limitations of this nature except that they aren’t able to do partial refunds. So I become more than a little upset because I haven’t received any alternative solutions except to tell me customers that I can’t issue a refund… and the fastest way to get your money back is to file a chargeback with your card issuer. Can you believe that? They freeze my money, and when I tried to refund it, they freeze my money and don’t allow me to even return the money. So, due to my experience, I’d say that square is a scam.. sure feels like they scammed me outta business real good. But I applaud their skills in setting up a company that profits from stealing from other people, that’s definitely not something easy to achieve. BYW, their square wallet has a lot of security flaws, of you make payments with square wallet, those payments can be disputed and charged bacl easily and the merchant won’t be able to do much because they didn’t capture a signature for that “swiped” transaction. And square wallet.. you can choose any name you like and attach any card and it doesnt matter because as long as your picture pops up.. its valid payment. God, I really want to take down square a couple notches, and I think I might.

2

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Nothing could be worse than Square. Very often — like over half the time — Square reports that I’ve received a payment and then, a few days later, refunds the money to the sender because “there was a problem” — with no explanation of what the problem is. I know it’s not lack of funds, because I’ve tried making payments to myself from accounts that I know are good, and the same thing happens. It is impossible to get any kind of explanation from Square about why some payments survive and others are reversed. Meanwhile, I am in the position of telling people I’ve received their money — and then, two days later, having to ask them to try paying again. The frustration I’ve experienced, and the incredible amount of time I’ve been forced to waste, and Square’s total non-responsiveness, add up to the strongest possible recommendation to stay as far away from these people as you possibly can.

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Please call the FTC and file a complaint 1-877-382-4357, press 1, then 1 then 3 and you’ll get a live person. They need to have many complaints to find a “trend” and then they will sue them. Everyone needs to file a complaint.

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We’ve used Square since it became available. Honestly, we’ve never had a single issue with it, other than occasional reboots of the system (which might not actually be a Square issue) or wearing out a card reader (which is free and they replace within a few days – and I learned to order multiples when reordering). So, for the better part of 4+ years…it’s been a boon for our business. We typically swipe 15K+ per month. We’ve never had a dispute, chargeback or funds hold. And our funds have always been promptly deposited. As for me….I’m a diehard Square supporter and recommend it freely and often.

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We operate a retail bakery and cafe and although we’ve only been using Square for about a month, we have no complaints. The POS (register app) is not perfect, but the price (no additional charge) makes up for a lot.

We’d used a couple of traditional processors in the past and each of them had stupendously complicated rates, surprise fees and rate changes that it was difficult to predict from one year to the next just what our rates would be. Now we can focus on our business and less on our payment processor – that’s worth the little extra we are paying..

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Thank you so much. In a thread with a lot of haters it’s nice to hear something not awful about them. I know a few people who also use them and haven’t had a problem but it’s nice to hear other people elsewhere have had positive experiences.

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All the negative comments I am a small business owner and my customers luv the convenience!! I had my square since early June 2013 and have not had a single issue!! I have made thousands of dollars to 60 dollars of transactions and so far it has been a very easy way to do business!!And I have never had money held for any amount of time other then the usual day to credit my account!!! Maybe all the complainers should get a regular credit card machine and give up the handy little square!!

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Shay Mun: I have the exact story but for the amount. Square is a rip-off! They want to hold funds for 90 days. The robot wrote to me (you can’t talk to a human being) an said I could refund the last transaction. So I went to my client (looking like a fool) and made the refund. Now I wait….. while Square has the funds and plays games.

DO NOT USE SQUARE!! THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF COMPLAINTS BUT THEY STILL HAVE A B+ RATING WITH BBB. eVEN THOUGH THEY WILL RESPOND TO BBB. GO FIGURE – SOMETHING IS GOING ON HERE.

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Has anyone’s money ever been released or does anyone know how to get there money released? They’ve been holding my husband’s funds for almost 30 days now and stated that we have to wait for 90. He’s a mechanic and also sells cars, of course his transactions are going to be a bit on the high side. Even had the client attempting to contact square to verify proof of payment and so on… No customer service… This sucks.

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I’ve been reading all the reviews that have been posted about lost of funds, time waiting for funds and chargebacks, and I can’t say it’s square all by itself. I have personally ran in just the last year alone over $130k in sales and haven’t had but only one small issue. Which was I went over my limit. I sent them a nice email and in less than 2 days my limit was raised and I was back to business. They deposit my funds into my bank of america account the following business day minus their fee and all is well. If your getting chargebacks that means YOUR customer has fought the charge. So why not ask yourself what did you do wrong? Did you trust someone very shady or maybe didn’t explain all the items you were selling properly? I’ve done over a quarter million dollars in sales and almost a half of it was through square without ridiculous incident like everyone here.on top of it all not one of my customers has had a problem or an issue paying the 2.75% fee for me to process their credit card! From what I’m reading and all the complaints it sounds like your all looking for a perfect transaction in a non perfect world. Get over blaming everybody and fix what’s going wrong with yourself and your business actions.

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I agree 100% with you Jimmie. I’ve been using Square for about 2 years. Had a couple of issues such as going over my limit and having one shady guy file a chargeback. I could have avoided the chargeback by not accepting a c.c. payment over the phone. The guy was having a fit over the most minute of service charges and I had a bad feeling he was going to pull a Chg.Bck. I tried to have him fax me a declaration signed and witnessed of his approval of the final charges along with a picture id but he claimed he didn’t have access to a hotel fax? I should have just stuck to my guns and said no way–Get me the fax or it’s a no go. The over the limit issue was a transaction of over 2k done with a phone authorization. No big deal, Square said I had to fax them a copy of the bill and once they verified everything was legit, I had my funds within 90 days or so. They requested a bank statement to verify I was a legit business. No big deal, You live and learn. I love Square and wouldn’t go anywhere else. Their fee structure is a no brainer. I appreciate their commitment to fraud prevention and staying away from risky businesses. In the end, It means lower fees for everyone–It’s a win-win in my book!

5

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CROOKS ! a donor donated $2200.00 to help a family in need,, now the family didnt get the money ! donor out his $2200.00 we cant get the money, and weve been canceled….. noone answers phone , emails are a joke too ! may GOD GET THESE CROOKS ! one day they will see the piper….. what can we do next ?

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I used Square for personal and business reasons. I had been using Square faithfully for about 2 years. I recently did a transaction for a $1500 payment. I had all of the necessary documentation, Government Issued papers, Copy of the invoice and contact information from the insurance company issuing the payment, along with 3 different copies of my PRIVATE bank account statements. Square then told me my account was “High-Risk”. and they permanently shut down my account and told me I would have to wait 90 days to receive my $1500, after they used it and did whatever with it and gave me no Interest for holdig and using my funds. If you have Square get out while you can. Intuit too. Go With paypal. These Companies are crooks.

1

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I believe it is possible. This will happen from a staff that has totally planned this through. He or she will come to work with a smartphone ready to do “damage”. All that needs to be done is switch the square reader.

However, if the staff is using your hardware i.e Ipad and printer then it might not be possible. Because he or she must have access to your square password and bank account in order to re-route the payment.

This is an important question that the Square people needs to address.

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Square sounded really good for my new business, so I got it. I didn’t realize that there is no way to speak to a live person. You can only contact them by email.

I first used Square on February 19, 2013, and had no refunds, charge backs or other issues. As my business is growing steadily, I applied for an increase to the keyed in limit for transactions on August 1, 2013. On August 02, 2013 I was informed that my account had been judged to be â€œhigh riskâ€ and my account had been closed. In addition, they were going to hold my transaction of $1060.94 for 90 days.

I accept that they have the right to terminate for any or no reason as that is in the user agreement. However, I do NOT accept that they can hold my money for 90 days without prior notice. There is nothing in the user agreement that mentions a holding period of 90 days for ANY reason, I have never had a refund, dispute or chargeback and this was a repeat customer that charged with them many times.

The BBB was no help. Square sent them the same generic email that they sent me twice and the case was closed.

If you are considering using Square do yourself a favor and visit this website where over 1,000 people have reported similar problems. I sure wish I had.

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They have a contract. With the credit card companies. To hold your money in case the customer defaults on the credit card. Then they refund the money back to credit card company ny . If your buisiness is big e ough then they give you the money and if they default they take it from your account. Win win for square inc. Not fair to those of us that work hard for our money.ey. All legal itsi in there long drawn out contract. Turned tnem in to. the state attorney generals office. Haven’t. heard back yet.

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I opened a square account and made two transactions then for no reason they deactivated my account and say they want give me money for 90 days ( 8900.00). You can’t call them and they want answer e-mails. My attorney says fraud and they have actually stolen my money, my customer intended that money be paid to me and not for them to hold for 90 days.PLEASE stay away from this company.

1

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Yes they are a rip off. They like to deactivate accounts when you complain. I contacted texas attorney generals office and the bbb. We will all have to get together and file class action suit. They have over 5000 dollars of mine since august 2013. Said they would release it in mid december of this year. Not holding my breath they said they would release it on september 7th. 2013 didn’t happen. Then they shut my account off, but they keep all your bank account info. If you get your money get new bank account. They are fraudulent, and we must set an example of them. Will be contacting an attorney that likes class action suits here and wins a ton.

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Lets cut the words to a minimum. DO NOT do business with this company! You will get burned! The best I can tell is they are actually criminal. I can’t believe they are getting away with withholding and stealing money. Amazing!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

first time i did receive my money 2th day. it was 8 monts ago. recently i couldnt get my money. i went to the bank they said they cant do anything. than i start checking all the other payments made by square doesnt show in my account.i called customers they said it was pulled from their account. in this case i dont know what to do. i decide not the use square any more. i am hoping they depozit my money that i worked so hard.

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There are many of us, please get in touch, I’m out $900 and an expensive necklace, no proof there was ever a chargeback. I’m sure a lawyer may listen if there are a few hundred of us. William Greenwoodwmcyle333@live.com

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Ii used my square at a convention,processing numerous charges. I had no Internet so I resigned myself to manual entry. I didn’t know it at the time but square requires you to obtain a zip code as well as the usual info. My question to square was/is…….how can I enter charges without the zip. Is it even possible. Every time I get a generic answer telling me what I already know, that I need a zip code. POS company.

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I sign up with square in May I got the first payment that came into this company. Then a payment of over a thousand dollars went in to my account with Square, that was on May 31. I can not get that money because their want post it to my account. In June Square deactivate my account. We all need to call in a lawyer. This company sound like a scam. The Phone # don’t work, don’t answer E-mail. Some one is getting all our money. JUST NOT FAIR

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Square said there was a chargeback for $900, kept it for 30 days, settled the dispute for my customer, took the money, despite swiped card, signature, description of merchandise taken, their email address for receipt. All of this without any verifiable information from customer or American Express. I rate the F, for fraud

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Ok, I provided Square a “not so nice” message on the website. I also immediately applied online for credit increase, providing my business license, contractor licenses and copy of the invoice I ran the initial $7k for on a Sunday night. Within 24 hours I have an email response that my application was reviewed and approved up to $10k per week for cards NOT run through the reader (I have no idea why the customers card wouldn’t read, but we had to manually enter). Funds previously to be held for 30-days, are released and will be in my bank account within 1-2 business days. Apparently they are trying very hard to increase the reviews to a more positive note.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

HORRIBLE! NO CREDIT LIMIT! JOKE! I JUST SIGNED UP AND RAN THE FIRST TRANSACTION OF MORE THAN $7,000.00. I RECEIVED EMAIL THAT I WILL RECEIVE CREDIT FOR $2,002 ONLY, THE BALANCE IN 30 DAYS. HOW AM I TO RUN A BUSINESS LIKE THIS!

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DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE THIEVES THEY WILL FIND ANY EXCUSE NOT TO DEN YOUR TRANSACTIONS.I AM CURRENTLY IN CONTACT WITH THE BBB TO ATTEMPT TO GET THESE THIEVES TO RELEASE MY MONIES. HERE IS THIER WELL HID INFO: 901 MISSION ST ..STE 210 SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94103 888-642-0662 JACK DORSEY (CEO) DREW EDMOND (LEAD SUPPORT)

REPORT THEM TO YOUR LOCAL BBB, FTC ALONG W YOUR LOCAL NEWS STATIONS…SCAMS LIKE THIS NEEDS TO STOP!!!@

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Thank you so much, I’ve been reading through these different horror stories and it seems Square has a myriad of ways to hold or steal small business’s money. I’m out $900 they say was based on a chargeback I have no way of verifying that it ever happened. Anyone wishing to add their name to a list interested in a class action, email, William Greenwood,

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

While it was easy to sign up and connect it to our checking account. It’s been totally useless since then. I can’t get the reader to read on 2 Android phones, nor my iPad. There is no help line or phone number. I emailed them and never received a reply. I would never recommend a company that you cannot contact directly. The 415-375-3176 number is just a recording directing you to email. My recommendation: STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

The square reader does not provide encryption of the data. You also don’t get your own merchant account. This means you rely on Square to act as the merchant and disperse the funds when they get them.

The data encryption is an issue, as you are liable for people’s information to be protected when you swipe it. There are online hacks already out there which expose users of this product to potential liabilities.

Most merchant processers have a sponsor bank- there is a reason. It would seem anyone is trusting that Square will always pay, but what if they fall on hard times- I don’t think anyone has any protection since you are not the merchant and not dealing with a bank.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I signed up with Square on August 9th to do my store’s credit card processing. They asked for no business documentation only my bank account information. Within two hours I was able to have Square up and running and started processing approx. 35 credit card transactions a day, averaging $1100 dollars a day. The first week using Square all went well and they deposited all funds the next business day as promised. The second week with Square started my nightmare. With no notice and no reason, on August 17th stopped depositing the money from all my credit card transactions. I tried calling them, but couldn’t reach anyone and their phone message always disconnected at the end. I sent them so many e-mails but I would never get a response. Finally on August 24th, I stopped using Square, but they were already withholding $8769.76 of my money. Later that day & I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and I finally got a response from them, a computer generated letter saying they needed documentation. They wanted copies of my business licenses, Tax ID’s, information on what kind of products I sell at my store and detailed information on my credit card transactions. I wrote them back and asked them to be more specific because I couldn’t possibly give them detailed information on all my credit card transactions since there had been a couple hundred credit card transactions in the two week period. I kept getting the same computer generated letter, not addressing any of my questions. Again, I complained to the BBB, and they finally gave me specifics as to what they wanted but no reasoning for withholding all my funds. I complied and sent them copies of all my licenses, my retail license, my city license, my tobacco license and detailed information on the last 10 transactions I ran at my store through Square. I also faxed them a two page letter on what kind of products I sold at my store. They never gave me an address or fax number. I scanned all the information but they said they never received it. I asked for a fax number and got a non working number. After I complained they gave me a working fax number, and I faxed all requested documentation to them, twice. I wrote them an e-mail that same day telling them that I faxed all the information twice, & I requested an acknowledgement that they received all the documentation requested. I also asked them when I could expect my funds to be released. I NEVER HEARD FROM THEM AGAIN AND IT’S BEEN 11 DAYS! I wrote them 3 e-mailed that same day, asking if they received my faxed information and then I sent them at least 30 e-mails since asking them why I haven’t heard from them. I told them that I have complied, faxed all requested documentation & again asked when they would release my funds. To date, September 25, I have never heard back from them and they are still withholding $8769.76 of my money.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

What I want to know is where are the funds? If I don’t have them, and my client doesn’t, then where are they?No customer service, and when you can finally get a response (only by being a bully) through email (ONLY – no phone calls). they’ll direct you to the website… So that you can read THEIR policy they are violating.Is this the way to conduct business in an age where everything goes vital in minutes??? Apparently.Don’t let them win. I’m posting in one forum per half hour until they release over $6k of mine they are holding onto for no valid reason. And believe me, there are plenty of them…

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Looks like it might be time for a class action suit. I did an AMEX transaction in excess of $700 this week, no transaction notification, and no funds deposited. The transaction does not show up in sales history either. Very underhanded, everyone should post contact emails to get the ball rolling. Here’s mine – towingd@bellsouth.net PRD +++

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Initially I thought Square would be a great thing for my wife’s cake decorating business. However yesterday I received a notice from Square that my account was a High risk and they were deactivating my account and holding over $1700 of my money for 90 days (or I could refund to the cards and seek alternative payment). I think this is an extremely poor and unprofessional business practice as it seems like on a whim they can close your account when customers like me have to refund money (in my case to 12 customers) and try to get money from them. Needless to say I am furious with this crap! Scammers.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I was unaware of the fact the if you run credit cards without a terminal over $2000 in less then a (7) day grace period. They hold funds of 1/3 of total transaction. Ex. 1350.00 they will hold $360.00 of it for over 30 days!!!..What company does that !!!?? Not recommended to use this company. Your company will literally go broke!!!..No customer service either, email only..!!!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

This company is a rip off, they will get your money and then hold it for them to operate on. Customer service is growing worse, there is no phone number on site and they don’t answer emails Do not do business with this company

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

If it sounds too good… A company that collects the funds from the card companies, but fails to send them on to the intended recipients for days or weeks… Hmmm, I wonder what they could be doing with your funds. Perhaps making a profit with your money as your business languishes. I had a couple of high dollar transactions and I can’t get my money. They no longer have a phone service number, so I am completely at their mercy.

Being a legitimate business I prefer to do business with other, legitimate companies. In my mind Square has unethical business practices, poorly disclosed policies that financially benefit them to your detriment. As soon as I get paid, if I get paid, I am ending my relationship with them. I would encourage others to not to get sucked into this honey trap.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

The reader seems to work only when it wants to. Customers cancel their transaction when they slide their card and nothing seems to happen so they walk away because they don’t trust the device ans I lose the sale. Dumb thing costs me more in lost sales than it’s worth. Absolutely the WORSE customer support I have ever seen.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Square is the WORST company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with! I started using them for the convenience, and everything went great for the first three months. Then, one day, my funds weren’t deposited. I emailed them (because you can’t call them, and even if you do they don’t answer and there is on voicemail) to find out what was going on. After almost a week, I got this weird email asking me to “verify” information, such as “reason for having multiple accounts.” I didn’t have multiple accounts, and emails asking for clarification went unanswered. After another 2 weeks, I got an email that they had deemed my account “high risk” (despite ZERO problems or chargebacks) and were closing it, and that they would be holding the money in my account for 60 days! Not knowing what else to do, I waited. Well, the 60 days came and went, no deposit. They had about $4K. I attempted to refund my customers so I could collect the money through another gateway…nope, couldn’t do that either. Just last week I filed formal complaints against Square to the California Attorney General and the State Attorney General of my home state, and emailed Square letting them know that I had done so. Finally today, after 3-1/2 months, I got my money.

Stay away from this company. When you sign up with them, you sign terms that say that they can withhold ANY amount of your funds for ANY reason, and when they do, there is NO WAY to get in contact with them. Being a startup company, their shenanigans nearly put me out of business. User beware.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’m at a loss reading so many peoples issues with Square and CNP. Have you ever had a regular merchant account where they did a background check and made sure you were legit? They do. Have you ever had to convince a processor that your product isn’t a sham? They’ll make you. CNP is the most risky processing there is and you need to be vetted. Opening a Square account and running a few grand through it is ludicrous to expect instant payola.

The other side of the criers who switched without testing, what is the matter with you? We’ve been operating for 4 years and on and off test Square to see if they can bear our retail biz but never have we just abandoned the old way of doing things without verifying that it can be held.

We’ve tested Square since Square began and it is a prefect fit for low dollar exchanges. You start losing the percentile game when you go up the food chain. You can negotiate with other processors, you cannot negotiate with Square.

We process about $500 a day through standard exchanges, not CNP and they deposit as normal. Never had a hickup, and percentages taken out are as expected.

I am simply blown away by some of the ignorance portrayed here. Trust but verify, test before jumping, and do your homework before putting your business on the line.

Square’s improvements are needed:

* Lower rates for trusted, high yield accounts* Square Register needs Inventory Control & Online Management of Register* ^^ needs to print on standard printers not just Star ($$$) printers.* Better customer service so you don’t feel you’re lost in a K-Hole; standard ticketing would be a huge improvement

4

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We have been with Square for seven weeks. After the Square fee has been deducted we have never received the correct amount. When contacted the excuse was that we were over the $2002, not $1000, for the weeks. This condition only existed for one of the seven weeks. Why have we been shorted the other six weeks? The next excuse given was that the cards were not swiped. Most, if not all, the cards were swiped. Currently Square is behind $842.01 in payments to us.Back to the second excuse, if we were charged 3.5$ plus 15cents, for all of the 80 transactions this would not come near to the shorted amount. We are being given the run around for our money. Contacting this website is part of the run around. If this is not resolved by Monday, 6/25/2012, I will spend the day contacting people, organizations.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I would rate this company a minus 5 stars if minus was possible. We had over 80000 from a fund raiser for a nonprofit which they still have not deposited into our account. There is no, absolutely no customer service. We have emailed repeatedly and either there is no response or an email from “sunny” , no last name, no phone. This is a total scam. They ask for information which they can get from our receipts. We are going to report this scam to both the federal and NYSE authorities. They have our money, are getting the float off of it besides charging us a fee.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

My first transaction with square was greater than $5K…looked as if everything was going smoothly until the day of deposit. I received an email saying the transaction was flagged because it was unusual. I filled out the requested information on the website, uploaded a copy of the receipt and crossed my fingers. Customer service contacted me the next day said everything checked out and the deposit would continue on the next business day….it did! So what started as a pain turned out good.

4

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’ve been using Square for over a year now, and have not had a problem until this past week. I have processed over a $1000.00 a week a number of times with no problems, at times a single charge might be $2000.00 to $4000.00. This last week I had charges of over $24,000.00 and they notified me that the amount over $20,000.00 will be held for 30 days. That’s almost $5000.00 of my money that I can’t use to pay my bills. But no problems other than that.

4

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I cannot recommend this company’s services unless you are a sadomasochistic & don’t currently have enough aggravation in your life. The initial convenience of using my smart phone & their reader appealed to me & I felt very sophisticated using it. Customers were impressed & a half dozen early transactions were as advertised. Then a relatively large(less than a $1000.00) “approved” card swipe didn’t show up in a follow up email. Then the nightmare began. Customer service is a misnomer with this company. They have not helped me IN ANY WAY to capture this debt. I believe they have no ethics whatsoever & urge you to avoid them like the plague. Do not wait to be victimized. I believe the horror stories. I’m just thankful that my “lesson” is not going to cost me what it has cost some others.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Very frustrating, first transaction went on hold, can’t call anyone to resolve the matter they have their money and I can’t even find out how long it going to take to have funds available in my account. I will never use square again !!!! Such a pain

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Run, run as fast as you can…this company totally sucks. They lull you into a false sense of security and then bam, hold your money for however long they want with no explanation. Their ’24 hour’ customer support is simply a sham.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I am currently setup with Square for my credit card transactions. I joined the beginning of April and did a total of $2650.00 in transactions for the day of April 10,2012 and have yet to receive it in my bank account. Their customer service is very poor and I email daily sometimes 3 times a day and I have received 2 responses, neither giving me a solution to my problem. I sent in required documents they requested and notified them in application process of my particular situation and how I would be processing each month with dollar amounts. I assume they did not read notes in application process or ecnored it. I am sitting as on April 16,2012 now with no solution to my problem or a timeframe on when I will be getting my funds. I would like any suggestions or a company you could refer that I could switch to. I have more transactions to process for this particular company but I am afraid to process anything else with SQUARE because of the response time and holds. By the way no one answers the phone when you call, just a recording. I also had to get the phone number from complaint blogs because it is not posted on Square website anywhere.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Report it to the California Attorney General and then email Square and tell them about it. If they don’t respond, send them a certified letter telling them that you reported them. WOrked for meâ€¦and the SAG needs to know what they are doing. Itâ€™s theft.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Please do NOT sign up with square. I don’t want what happened to my company happen to you. I signed up for it, did 2 test transactions which worked fine. Then I charged my client for some air sampling. I got a weird email from them late at night that they “wanted more information” about my company. They listed out a bunch of things. Red flags went off. Bottom line, they keep your company’s money and I guess day trade it or whatever. Report them to the FTC at (202) 326-2222 and OCC 800-613-6743 and hopefull we can get these scammers shut down.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We own a bail bond business. I signed up with Square as a business. Well, a couple of days ago we process two payments in the amounts of $2400 and $1239. Three days went by and we did not receive a email from Square sayinf anything about funds on the $2400 being transfered to our bank. SO I login in to our Square Account to see what’s going on with that transaction. We had to notify Square by email to see what was going on. So 24 hours later they replied and this what they said the first time:

[edited: name removed] FEB 27, 2012 | 09:26AM PST

Hello,

Thanks for writing in.

We are temporarily holding one or more payments in your Square balance because you exceeded your payout amount of $1,000 per week for manually entered transactions (payments where a card is not swiped). You can read more about our deposit policy here: https://help.squareup.com/customer/portal/articles/11863

To increase your payout amount for such transactions, visit the link below to complete a short online application with a few questions about your business and how you use Square.

We will review your application and get back to you within 1-2 business days. If your application is approved, we will increase your payout amount and release any held payments to your bank account.

Also remember that businesses that swipe credit cards using the Square card reader will have all their funds sent to their bank for deposit the next day. Swiped payments do not have a deposit limit, regardless of the transaction size.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

[edited: name removed] Square Supportâ€‹ help.squareup.com

So, I sent a email back to them asking them to increase the limit, just like they said to do and this is what they replied back to me: ” Hello Steve,

Square has concluded an investigation into your usage and has labeled your account as high-risk. For security reasons, we have elected to de-activate your account.

We are exercising our discretion under paragraph 42 of the Square User Agreement to terminate your account. From the date of this letter forward, you will not be able to process transactions using Square.

Any funds currently in your account will be held for 30 days before being released.

[edited: name removed] ” What a company! Needless to say we have contacted our Business Attorney, It looks like we are going to court about ths matter and Ohio Attorney General will be getting involved….

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I had the EXACT same thing happen, except they said they were holding the funds for 60 days, and then didn’t release it then! I eventually filed complaints with the CA AG and FL AG (where I live) and emailed Square telling them so, and they just released the funds today after nearly four months. THey damn near put me out of business.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I’ve tried two card readers, and cannot swipe yet. I have a Droid HTC Inspire. The volume goes crazy sometimes when I plug in the reader, and I believe my problems are connected to the jack. Customer services do stink. So far, it’s not working. Trying to get away from the ridiculous fees my other processor charges.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

You’re lucky, don’t use them. They took $900 out of my acct. and said..they gave it back to the customer who disputed the (provable) transaction..But there is no verification that this chargeback ever occured!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have been ripped off enough. I am tired of the games. You will find me on all the complaint sites. All of you who take little transactions think your safe. In a few months you will know better. We who take single payments over a thousand know the truth. They are destroying people’s lives and businesses everyday and they don’t care one bit. The NO-CARD-PRESENT game is their money game. They have the money to use for investment in interest bearing vehicles. Without your knowledge. Making this securities fraud I believe. I have began a complaint and report with the U.S. Attorney General and will be talking with the California States Attorney General in person to explain the facts so as to overcome the clever deceptive wording used by Square. As long as we sit here and complain they couldn’t care less. Try to call them and see. If you take large payments, you can just F-off. Go to other sites and see. This site may be supported by square and filled with plants who post love letters. I know many companies do this. Only 44 complaints at the BBB? There have been thousands on the internet in the last six months. Why the difference? Try to get the required field information for the BBB complaint form. Square is good at hiding that information. Have an address or even zip code? Then you worked at it. The DOJ fraud web address is ffetf@usdoj.gov Let’s get to reporting the facts to those who can get to the bottom of it and quit the whining here.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Laura, I did finally get my money but, it was because there was no way for them to hold it without facing criminal charges from the state contractors license board. All monies paid to a contractor in the state of California are monies in Trust. Meaning they cannot be used, transferred or held in any manner until the contracted work is substantially completed for the amount being paid. This is a serious matter in the state of California. However Square already had this info from me last year. They were just holding the funds as long as they could until I complained. They released them immediately when I finally got through. They knew, they just hold money as long as possible. I feel for those of you who have no such leverage on them. They clearly are using your money for investment vehicles. It is a smart play on their part, although an immoral and hurtful action without any regard for the people they damage. When you contact them FINALLY, they couldn’t care less what hardship they are creating. We have trashed all there equipment now. As I stated before, we ran ten dollar transactions and swiped them, then five minutes later tried to swipe the card for the actual payment of 3-5 thousand dollars and it would not swipe. In our test the manually entered transaction sailed through. This is not some glitch or system error, it is a pre-programmed intentional action developed and fostered by Square. They are probably one of the most dishonest and thieving companies on the internet that isn’t based in Nigeria. IN my opinion everyone who needs to do transactions over $800.00 per should cancel them immediately. YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR MONEY FOR 30-60 DAYS. NO WAY!!!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Your comments strike a familiar cord, some 35 emails later They have found for my customer who supposedly questioned the authorization on a Am X, charge at my booth, at a show. He signed, swiped, received a description of Merch. and a emailed receipt, they supposedly supported his claim and took $900 out of “My Acct.” So I’m out the jewelry and the money, with no way to verify there was even a chargeback.

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Did no one read the terms and conditions until after they signed up? They have restrictions until you are a proven business. If you can not read and understand they might hold your funds at the beginning if anything seems questionable and to confirm you are a legitimate business, maybe they have a great reason for holding your funds. Maybe you are not legit and they are protecting others.

Read the terms. It says it in black and white. Don’t sign up and not read, then get upset because they are holding funds. This only makes you look like a moron. Everyone that is posting they are holding your funds should have expected it, because that is exactly what the terms stated when you signed up.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I recently had 4 processing machines break down in a couple of days. I Went to square to do some processing to solve the emergency. Loving it! However winter is my slow season and we rarely process more than $1000.00 a day or weekend, Summer we work very fast sometimes with three persons competing to swipe one terminal @ multiple sites. I fear that I will need some other service unless Square finds a swipe and sign system that operates as fast as conventional systems. In my business where many of us experience high sales volume I could sell Square faster than ice boxes for igloos as a backup to peoples current processing options. I am dumping the current merchant processor for a no contract processor so I can continue to take advantage of the Squareup system as much as possible.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I recently started using Square Up and absolutely LOVE IT! I, too, am with an in-home party business and recommend all my consultants use Square Up. I find my customers LOVE being able to swipe and sign at the parties and this way, I don’t need to keep confidential information such as credit card numbers on file. The merchant fee with Square Up is lower than what my company offers so I am saving money. I had to contact Square Up Customer Service and was highly impressed with their timely response, professionalism and ability to solve my issue very quickly. I give Square Up an A+ for my business!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have worked in merchant services for over 10 years. A great website to educate yourself on what you need to do as a merchant to become PCI compliant is http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org

Credit Card transactions over the phone are one of the more risky ways to accept credit cards. However, it really depends on the company you choose to process your mobile transactions and their security measures. Make sure that you do your research and compare to the PCI Security Standards before you choose. Some processors charge a monthly PCI fee to assist you with becoming compliant and offer $50k to $100k indemnification… which helps protect your business in the unfortunate event of a breach.

I hope this helps!

Lyndi Heckaman

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I have had square since June 2011.it has worked great for me. I haven’t had more than 1000.00 a week though. I was paying so many extra fees with my last credit card company is why I changed to square. They work really great for me. Only problem Is I am trying to get some kind of statement from they on my fee’s I have paid to them for my tax records. Can’t get it on my account page for all of last year. Called there customer service number and waiting for them to call.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I was trying the 2.75% on some on my current prices that I charge and it is pretty high compared to the .15cent they used to charge for each transaction. Why not continue to charge .15cents on each transaction? I discovered that I would have to pay the transaction fee out of what I charge my customers , I am losing money this way. Do I need to up my prices to cope with these transaction fee’s ? Say at the end of 2 days I make over $1000, does that mean that the fee would then be 3.5% +.15cents , since it takes 2 or more days to reach my account? The fees are too high, I am better off collecting cash then depositing it into my account for free.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

We have considered charging our customers the 2.75% fee. The reason we have to pay that much anyway is because of the rewards points the companies offer their customers. We would rather take a check than be charged that fee.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Have processed 2 relatively small payments so far. No problems yet. The last cc company I signed up with completely ruined my credit (TMS, Merimac Capital…they use about 12 various names) and was a huge scam (still in an expensive legal situation with them) so this one is less frightening than the last while I try to re-build my credit and can research reputable cc processing companies (maybe through my bank next time).

3

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

I love square. I do sales at the back of the room and it’s wonderful to have the convenience. i have kept my merchant account and authorize.net account for my online purchases. But I do love the additional support of square. No problems with deposits, receipts, or customer service. And I love that I get an email telling me when they deposited the sales. Would like a few more bells and whistles, but so far, so good.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Scam!!!Im a contractor and used square on two small invoices without a problem.The third invoice was for$2,800 and they deactivated my account.They said through an email that it would be 90 days before I get it back.I can’t get anyone on the phone.Its strange how when we were setting the account up with a lady named Sarah ,they answered on the first ring.I have contacted the Attorney General and have gotten no help.Caution!!!

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Ok…FINALLY deposited funds on December 15 after holding them since December 7 and December 9 respectively. Numerous telephone calls, numerous messages, hours and hours of conversations with representatives that could do NOTHING. Never a returned phone call from emails or messages left on answering machine. Micky Mouse outfit.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Short and Lousy experience with this company! Questionable policies you don’t know of when you sign up…. They held my money forever! NO one to speak to as they hide behind a slow email responses ONLY.DO NOT USE!! I switched to Intuit as soon as my funds finally released. DO NOT USE THEM!!

1

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Not good for small businesses who depend on their funds to keep going. NO phone support available once you are deactivated and there is no warning or explanation for deactivation. Funds are held for 90 days. Just stay away from Square.

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

Started processing with them Sept. 1st, 2011. So far so good with Square! I am an independent contractor and run an Adult Home Party business. I travel constantly for sales so Square was perfect for me. As long as you swipe the card fast in the reader, the transaction gives you a response quickly. I usually process on Fri and Sat nights and my money is in the bank by Tuesday morning. The fact that it doesn’t automatically save the cardholders name to the history report would be my only complaint but there’s an easy work around: just type it into the description field.

5

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.

This company is a joke if you are a real company that makes real transactions. They have been holding a $8200.00 payment for three days now. I have sent many emails with no response except a auto sent that says they are committed to getting back with in 24hrs. Phone customer service is horrible! Save the stress just use PayPal This company SUCKS!!!!!

This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.